


When Worlds Collide

by endzela



Category: Aladdin (1992), Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001), Hercules (1997), Mulan (1998), Peter Pan (1953), Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas (2003), The Lion King (1994), The Little Mermaid (1989), Treasure Planet (2002)
Genre: Adventure, Alternate Universe, Canon Related, Disney, Dreamworks, F/F, M/M, Multiple Crossovers, Multiple Pairings, Non/Disney, Pirates, Romance, Slow Build
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-18
Updated: 2017-05-13
Packaged: 2018-05-07 10:57:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 44,672
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5454149
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/endzela/pseuds/endzela
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's been five years since Jim Hawkins became a military cadet and moved to a different planet. He's become a well-known sailor in both space and the Earth, and he is hired on a ship as an adviser. However, he gets kidnapped onto a pirate ship, and there's something the pirates aren't telling him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Pirates

”But Captain, with all due respect, the part of the ocean where we’re headed is known to have a lot of pirates,” Jim Hawkins pointed out while circling an area on the map laid in front of him. The captain smiled and patted him on the shoulder, and Jim felt like an inexperienced 17-year-old cabin boy again.

“Hawkins, I appreciate your concern, but we’re already behind the schedule. That part may be dangerous, but it’s faster than going around the islands. We need to take risks to get in time to our destination,” Rayleigh Wills, the captain of the ship, said. “And when it comes to fighting, we have the best cannons on this ship. Pirates know that, and they don’t have the guts to attack.”

Jim sighed internally. He respected the old black-bearded man, but for what reason had he even hired him as an adviser if he wasn’t going to listen? He knew about Jim’s past with pirates, so Jim should be the pirate expert if anyone. And he knew that yes, the pirates _did_ have the guts to attack ships, whether they had better cannons or not. Jim was also more familiar with these waters than the captain since he had sailed there many times before. He wasn’t in the mood to fight, though, so he just nodded at Rayleigh’s words.

“All I’m saying, sir, is that we should be on the alert all the time. Pirates are very unpredictable.”

“Yes, thank you. You may go now,” Rayleigh told him, turning to light his cigar. Jim grimaced slightly at the heavy smoke that was now starting to fill the room, and he quickly slipped out of the cabin. God, how could anyone bear to inhale that kind of poison daily? He had tried it once on his first mission after becoming a military cadet, and he had almost choked. There was no way he would ever want to be near that stuff again.

“Jim! Good timing!” The brown-haired man felt someone’s hand wrap around his shoulders, and when he turned his head he saw playful blue eyes staring at him.

“Eric,” Jim grinned, stopping. Eric’s hand felt warm around him, and the small crush he had developed somewhere along the way started creeping up on him in the back of his mind. There probably wasn’t a single person on the ship who wasn’t affected by Eric’s charm, but when Jim had caught himself staring at Eric’s naked chest when he was changing his clothes, he had realized his feelings weren’t purely friendship. It had led him to many awkward situations, which Eric didn’t even seem to realize.

“Everyone’s having dinner right now, so the deck is all ours,” Eric smiled, leading both of them to the railing. The sun was starting to set and it painted the sky with shades of red and orange. The fresh sea breeze blew through their hair, and Jim wondered whether Eric was being romantic intentionally or accidentally. He settled for the latter, since he was sure the black-haired man was oblivious to his longing stares. For him they were just good friends.

“We’re going to sail through the infamous Red Mud,” Jim sighed.

The dangerous part of the ocean was referred to as ‘Red Mud’ since the water became red from blood from all the fights between sailors and pirates, and no sane sailor usually sailed through it. Or if they did, they had an army of warships with them.

Apparently their captain was quite temerarious (some people called it stupidity), and it was more important for him to get on time to their destination than the safety of his crew. Jim wondered again why he had been hired.

“Are you serious?” When Jim wasn’t showing any signs of it being a joke, Eric frowned and leaned against the railing. “I’ve sailed with the captain since I was a boy, and not once has he acted like this. The cargo must be pretty damn important if he’s willing to take a risk this big.”

Jim pressed his shoulder against the other’s. “But if the cargo is that important, isn’t it better to be safe than sorry and sail the longer way?”

“You see, a cargo that important is probably going to an important person. And, what they always say, ‘time is money’,” Eric stated as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “The captain probably gets also a lot of money if he’s on time.”

“I guess you’re right… I still don’t like this idea, though.”

“It’ll be alright”, the black-haired man grinned, showing his dimples. “You’ve sailed on spaceships, survived from a supernova and various sea monsters, fought against pirates, helped to draw maps on space and Earth… I think you’ll survive this one too.”

“So you’ve heard the stories?” Jim couldn’t help but smile. It was nice to be noticed by Eric, who was quite a sailor himself.

Eric pushed him jokingly. “Of course! You’re a legend among us, James Pleiades Hawkins. And what, you’ve achieved all that in five years?”

“Well, technically four and a half…”

“Exactly! You’ve experienced more than the captain, who has been a sailor all his life.”

Jim shrugged. “You can’t really compare us. I wouldn’t know how to handle a whole crew, let alone a few men. I’m just an ordinary sailor and militant.”

The black-haired man laughed at his modesty, and a comfortable silence landed between them. The ship was creaking as the waves hit against it, and somewhere under the deck could be heard muffled laughter and talking from the galley.

“We should probably go and eat before all the food is finished,” Jim suggested, and together they walked down the stairs leading to the lower deck.

 

 

* * *

 

 

Jim was still half-asleep when he felt something crash heavily against the ship. The crash sent him flying down onto the floor, and then the sounds of a warning bell and men yelling started. He sprang to his feet and was pulling his white military jacket on when Eric dashed through his door, looking like he had run a mile. His hair stuck out in every direction, but so did probably Jim’s too.

“Grab your sword,” he panted, and Jim knew what was going on.

“Damn those pirates, we’re not even on the Red Mud yet,” the brown-haired man muttered, rattling through the closet looking for his sword. He had thought he wouldn’t need it on this journey, so he had stored it securely into the closet with his clothes and other stuff.

“What the hell was that crash?” Jim asked, following Eric through the corridor where the sailors’ hammocks were. There were clothes everywhere thrown in a hurry, and some had even left their shoes behind.

“It was the pirate ship. It has some kind of harpoons that attach to the ship, which makes taking over it much easier. They’re already trying to get on, although our men are making it difficult,” Eric explained. There was no sign of his usual playful self, which meant the situation was deadly serious.

“Shit,” Jim cursed, “I’d like to say ‘I said so’ to the captain, but I think I’ll save it for later.”

His words earned a laugh from Eric, but it died when they reached the deck. The pirates were starting to take possession of the ship, and even if Jim didn’t want to admit it to himself, they were good fighters. He was going to say something to Eric, but he didn’t have time because they were both pulled into the fight by a pair of pirates, who had noticed their arrival.

“Well, you certainly know how to handle a sword,” one of the pirates grinned at Jim after he had managed to block his attacks. The pirate was big, so big that Jim’s head barely even reached his bare chest. The pirate wore earrings and had a blue tattoo on his left shoulder.

“You’re not bad yourself,” Jim said through his gritted teeth. Their swords met and sent sparks flying around them, and Jim had to take a few steps back to keep his balance. The pirate’s attacks were powerful and quick, which was a bad combination, and Jim knew he wouldn’t last against him for long at this rate. He had to try to finish him as soon as possible.

Jim dodged another attack and saw an opening in the pirate’s defense. He kicked the other’s foot, making him lose his balance, and slashed his sword towards him. What he hadn’t expected, though, was the pirate stopping his sword by biting into it with his teeth.

He tried to pull the sword back to himself, but the pirate’s grip was strong.

“What -– “ Jim didn’t have time to finish his sentence because the next second the pirate had wrenched the sword from him, leaving him defenseless. He backed a few steps, but his back met with a mast. He swallowed.

The pirate was on his feet again, and he was closing the space between them threateningly. He had now a sword in his both hands and one between his teeth, and Jim’s chances of escaping weren’t looking so good. Then there was a shout.

“I’ve got the captain! Drop your weapons!”

Everyone’s head turned to the direction where the shout had come from, and to Jim’s horror he saw a pirate holding Rayleigh Wills with a sword on his throat.

There were clanks all over the ship when the crew was forced to drop their swords. The pirates started grinning, and one of them walked towards the captain with confidence in his every step. He was wearing red clothes and a red hat over his brown hair. Was he the captain?

“Men, gather everyone here,” the red-wearing man commanded, and Jim was roughly dragged by the big pirate to stand with his crew. He was glad to see Eric a few men away from him, and they nodded reassuringly at each other.

“Well, if it isn’t Sinbad,” Rayleigh spitted the word _Sinbad_ like it was bad wine. The pirate’s grin even widened.

“Captain Rayleigh Wills,” Sinbad made a mocking bow. “Seems like you’ve heard about me?”

The captain didn’t answer.

“You don’t seem very talkative today, so let’s get straight to business, shall we? According to the course your ship was headed, you’re going to sail through the Red Mud, am I right? Well, we could take you under our protection. The other pirates know how strong my crew is, and they wouldn’t dare to harm you or your ship.”

Rayleigh frowned, confused. “What are you after?”

“You see, there’s something on your ship I want,” Sinbad continued, “or more specifically, someone.”

Rayleigh’s crew was also very baffled at this point. Who could be so important on their ship that the pirates thought it worth to attack them? They were pretty good sailors, of course, but you could hire sailors of the same level anywhere. And pirates probably had their own sources of recruiting new crew members.

The pirate holding Rayleigh had lowered his sword, so the captain was free to yank himself free to maintain at least some of his pride. He straightened his back. “Who are you referring to?”

“I believe there’s a man called Hawkins on your ship.”

Jim’s blood turned cold at Sinbad’s words. He didn’t notice, but Eric was staring at his back almost as horrified as himself.

“What do you want with Hawkins? I can’t just give up my men!” Rayleigh demanded. He was starting to get angry, but Sinbad also seemed to lose his patience.

“That is no concern of yours. May I remind you that you’re in no position to negotiate?” The smile had faded from Sinbad’s face. “I’m offering you a fair deal here. I’m not even going to touch the cargo. Take it or not.”

Jim realized that the pirates would take him with them anyway, did the captain make the deal or not. With the deal the crew could at least sail through the Red Mud safely, if the pirate captain’s words were true. He didn’t want to put his captain into a difficult position because it would mean that the captain could possibly lose the trust of his men. He also didn’t want to watch his comrades getting killed by pirates, so he did what every person would do in his situation.

“I’ll go with them, Captain,” Jim said. His voice was surprisingly calm and steady as everyone’s eyes turned to stare him. He had also caught the pirate captain’s attention, and he could feel his eyes on him as he pushed his way through the sailors to the front.

“So you’re Hawkins?” Sinbad stroked his beard, and his lips curled slightly upwards. Jim met his eyes with a challenging look.

“Hawkins, you can’t -– “ Rayleigh started but was silenced rudely by Sinbad.

“Captain Wills, I think you didn’t quite hear the man’s words. He said he’s coming with us,” Sinbad stated, grabbing Jim’s arm. Jim didn’t resist since he didn’t want to make this any harder than it had to be.

“Jim, why are you doing this?”

It was Eric, who had made his way to the front too. Three closest pirates got ready to stop him with swords if needed. Jim’s heart ached when he looked at the black-haired man, and everything he had ever wanted to say to him came to his mind. He didn’t say anything, though. Just dropped his gaze.

It was an easy choice to give up his freedom for Eric’s safety.

“It’s decided then. Rat!” the pirate captain called one of his men. “Shoot five shots to their flag! That way the pirates will know not to attack this ship.”

The man named Rat responded with ‘aye aye, Captain’, and with amazing agility he climbed up the mast until he reached the flag. While he was shooting, the pirates started retreating to their own ship with Sinbad (and Jim) leading them. A few of them lingered behind to make sure the sailors didn’t get any funny ideas. When all of them were ready, the harpoons were detached and the ship started gliding away quite fast for a ship of that size.

“Mind telling me now the reason why I’m here?” Jim snarled and yanked his arm away from Sinbad’s grip. He didn’t look back at his old crew.

“Wow, easy there! Jim was it?” the pirate captain asked, raising his hands to show he wasn’t going to do anything.

“Hawkins to you.”

“Alright, whatever you say, Jim,” Sinbad chuckled. “Let’s start again. I’m Sinbad, the captain of this ship.”

Jim sighed exaggeratedly. “I kind of figured that out.”

The big pirate who Jim had fought against earlier walked past them, laughing at their conversation. Sinbad sent a glare after him.

“That jerk is Kale. He’s the one who’s in charge if I’m not here,” Sinbad introduced. “The one who shot the flag is Rat. You shouldn’t probably get too close to him.”

Jim’s eyes followed the man who was now climbing one of the masts like a monkey. Yeah, he should definitely stay at least a few feet away from him.

“And that one is -– “

Something big jumped at Jim from behind, knocking him down painfully. When that something started licking his face, he realized it was a… dog? And a slobbering one, too.

“–- Spike. Sorry, should’ve warned.” The grin on the captain’s face told otherwise.

Jim got up, annoyed, and wiped the slobber off his face. The dog looked at him, wagging his tail. At least he could be friends with the dog if all of the pirates turned out to be complete idiots, like they seemed now. Especially the captain.

“Let’s make this clear. I just want to get this over with, whatever it is you want me to do, and go back home. I’m not here because I want to,” Jim said. His voice was ice cold.

“Okay,” Sinbad shrugged. “I can’t tell you the reason we brought you here now, but you’ll find out. Eventually.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You’ll find out.”

Jim realized he wouldn’t get another word from the captain, so he accepted his destiny and let Sinbad lead him to his cabin. Apparently he would use the captain’s cabin from now on together with Sinbad since he was, in his own words, ‘generous and hospitable’, and the cabin was ‘the most comfortable one around here’. Jim was sure, though, that the pirate captain just wanted to keep an eye on him and prevent him from escaping, but he accepted the offer.

“Well then. Welcome on board, Jim Hawkins.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you liked the first chapter! There just aren't enough fics about this pairing. I'm still not sure how many chapters there'll be, but guess is around five or six, depending on my inspiration to write. There'll also be more characters and pairings later, although I haven't decided which ones yet.
> 
> I'm trying to get better at writing, so kudos and comments are warmly welcomed! Thanks for reading.


	2. Why me?

Jim sat in the cabin in disbelief. How did he end up with pirates _again_? When he had become a military cadet five years ago he had sworn to himself he would never set his foot on a pirate ship, or if he did, it would be because he was going to capture the pirates. Fate could be such an ass, he thought. But maybe this could also mean that he would have a chance of meeting the cyborg John Silver again since pirates seemed to know each other well.

It had been two days now since he had been kidnapped, and he hadn’t left the cabin even once. It wasn’t that he couldn’t, it was just that he didn’t want to. Sinbad didn’t spend a lot of time in his cabin either, he usually just came to sleep or bring some food for Jim. At first he had tried to start a few conversations with him, but he had given up when Jim had only glared at him. After two days of silence it was starting to get to him, though, since there wasn’t much to do in the cabin.

“I wish Eric was here,” Jim said with closed eyes while lying on his back. At least Sinbad had been nice enough to let him sleep on the bed while he himself slept on a hammock.

“Who’s that? Your boyfriend?”

Jim jumped up at the sudden voice, looking bewildered. Kale was leaning on the doorway with crossed arms and a smirk on his face.

“When did you come in?” Jim muttered, embarrassed. He wasn’t really asking.

“So not your boyfriend?” Kale put his hands down, stepping in. Jim was still intimidated by how big the pirate actually was. 

“What do you want?” He stood up. Otherwise he would have felt too short compared to the other one (not that standing up made any difference). “And no, he’s not my… boyfriend.” 

“I’m glad to hear,” Kale smiled shortly, and before Jim could ask what he meant by that, he continued, “Captain wants you to come to the deck. Says that otherwise the crew won’t believe that you’re not dead.” 

Jim snorted, but he was actually glad to have an excuse to go out.

“Oh, yeah. I’ve been meaning to say this, but sorry for almost killing you on the ship,” Kale apologized. “Nothing personal, alright?”

“You were far from killing me,” Jim laughed, even if it wasn’t entirely true. “And yeah, nothing personal.”

“Good, then. Ready to go?”

Jim followed the big man to the deck, and the pirates, who were gathered around the captain, whistled when they saw him.

“He’s finally here!” one of them, an old man with white hair, shouted. 

“You actually got him to get out of there,” Sinbad directed his words to Kale, surprised. Kale shrugged, looking smug.

“Maybe you’re just not his type,” he said, and the crew started laughing. Jim crossed his arms and wanted to say ‘hey, I’m still here and I can hear every word you say’, but he guessed it would make the pirates laugh even more, and he was tired of being laughed at.

“Ha ha,” Sinbad imitated, shaking his head. “Alright then, you have work to do. Leave us alone.”

When the laugh had died, the pirates parted and went their own ways. Jim eyed the captain warily, wondering if he should speak his mind.

“Are you tired of sulking yet?” Sinbad asked, tearing his eyes off the wheel. Jim didn’t answer, so the captain sighed and turned around to face him fully. “Listen, you’re here whether you like it or not, and -– “ 

“Just tell me what the hell you want with me!” 

Sinbad was surprised at the sudden burst. At least he’s talking, he thought. “I already said that I can’t tell you. Not yet. But if it means so much to you, a person who might tell you something is coming to see you today.” He looked past Jim and grinned. “Actually, she’s already here.”

Jim followed Sinbad’s eyes to the horizon, where a ship was sailing towards them. It was still far, but Jim could make out it was a pirate ship. 

“Great. This just keeps getting better and better.”

“Not very keen of pirates?” the captain asked.

“Who would be? I’ve dealt with pirates enough in my life to know that they’re always up for trouble. I’ve had to help them in the past, and now you’re making me do something like that again.”

Jim still remembered the events with John Silver and his pirate crew clearly. He had been 17 years old, young and reckless, and it had felt like an adventure. He kind of owed them, actually, because if it wasn’t for them, he probably would have never come to this point in his life. But they were still pirates, and they had threatened him to make him help them.

“So I’ve heard,” Sinbad nodded, and then yelled a command to his men: “Lower the anchor! A guest is coming.”

“I’m flattered. I didn’t know I was famous among pirates.” Jim’s voice was full of sarcasm, which Sinbad didn’t seem to notice. Or he just didn’t care.

“That’s actually why we knew where to find you. And your past is part of the reason why we need you. Okay, that was enough information!” And to change the subject he put on a charming smile and leaned against the wheel with one hand. “So, tell me, what does the military say about me?”

“That you’re annoying and arrogant?” Jim suggested. Sinbad’s face fell. “To be honest, I’ve never heard about you.” Sinbad’s face fell even more if possible. 

“Oh, that’s… unexpected. I’ve always thought that I have a reputation to maintain, but if you’ve never even heard about me, I guess I haven’t done enough bad things. One would think that being accused of stealing the Book of Peace would be enough, but never mind then.”

“Wait – it was _you_? You stole it?” Jim gasped. He had been in space at that time, so it hadn’t affected him that much, but he had read about it in another planet’s newspaper. The paper hadn’t said who had stolen it, though, and he hadn’t remembered to ask about it when he had returned to Earth later.

“So you do have heard about me!” Sinbad grinned. “But anyway, it wasn’t me who stole it. It was a goddess called Eris. I just returned it.” 

The pirate captain was happy to notice that this was the first time they were having an actual conversation where he wasn’t the only one doing the talking. He didn’t admit it to himself, but he had been a little bit worried about the man when he had basically locked himself up in the cabin for two days and had barely eaten the food Sinbad had brought him. Of course he had known it would take time for him to adjust to this, but it was still worrying.

“Right… A pirate who returns stuff.” 

Jim could see the ship clearly now. It was made of dark wood, and it was much bigger than the one Sinbad had. There was a Jolly Roger signaling the nature of the crew, and Jim wondered what kind of captain such an enormous ship possessed.

“We should go and get ready to welcome the guests,” Sinbad told him, walking away to give commands to his men. 

The deck got busy soon, and the pirates were hurrying to get everything done. One brought the finest wine they had while the other was cleaning the deck from all the ropes and buckets, and Spike was covering everything with his drool. Jim felt useless, but he didn’t know what to do, so he settled for watching the nearing ship until it had stopped right next to them. A narrow wooden bridge was lowered from it, and down walked a very beautiful but dangerous looking woman. She reminded Jim of his former captain Amelia.

“Captain Sinbad,” the woman greeted with a small smile. It wasn’t a friendly smile; it was merely political. She extended her hand, and Sinbad kissed it lightly. 

“Captain Kida,” Sinbad returned smile. “How was your trip?” 

Kida tossed her white hair over her shoulder, and Jim was glad her icy blue eyes were staring at Sinbad instead of him. She was even more intimidating than Kale.

“It took us one day to get here because of the weather. There was a storm coming from the North,” Kida explained. Then she raised her hand slightly, signaling for his crew. “I hope you don’t mind if I bring a few of my men with me.” 

“Not at all, be my guest,” Sinbad answered. He led Kida to a table set for them, offering her wine. Kida looked pleased. After a few lines of formalities, the female captain seemed to decide it was time for real talk. 

“Do you have the man with you?”

“Indeed I do. Jim,” Sinbad called, motioning for the said man to come to them. Both of them followed him with their eyes, but his steps didn’t falter because he didn’t want to look weak in front of the captains. Only then when they both openly checked him out (Sinbad seemed to do that in every chance he could, and yes, Jim had noticed) he felt slightly embarrassed. And angry. He wasn’t a pet for people to show around! 

“Quite a looker,” Kida stated and smiled at Jim. “Sit down.” There weren’t any other chairs than the ones Kida and Sinbad had, so Jim sent a questioning look at Kida. She, on the other hand, stared at Sinbad and raised her eyebrows until he got the message. Sinbad stood up and gave his seat to Jim, and there was a tight smile on his face. 

Jim was starting to like this woman.

“Shang, give me the thing we found,” the female captain said to one of his men, who was standing a little bit farther away and observing the other captain’s crew around them. He had his long hair tied up, and he looked ready to fight anyone who tried to do anything stupid. He nodded at Kida, bringing a wooden chest to them. Jim wondered why this scenario seemed so familiar.

He didn’t have to wonder it for long, though, because then Kida opened the chest and took out a half of a sphere, and all the memories from his teenage years came back to him. He knew what the sphere was, but why did they have it? Wasn’t it destroyed during the explosion on Treasure Planet? Even if it was just a half of it, it looked exactly the same as the one that had led to Treasure Planet. 

“I know what you’re thinking, but no, this isn’t the same one,” Kida sighed. “We found this on an island buried deep in a cave. First we didn’t know what it was, but then we remembered the stories. About you and the map and Treasure Planet.” 

“This doesn’t make sense.” Jim rubbed his temple. He was really confused at this point. “Have you opened it?”

Sinbad had crossed his arms and was listening to their conversation with mildly-interested face.

“We tried, but there’s some sort of a technique to it that we don’t know of. So we thought that you might be able to do it.” Kida handed the half sphere to Jim, who watched it carefully. There was kind of a metal wall where it had been halved, so he couldn’t see the inside. He tried to move the pieces like he had done with the other sphere, but they didn’t click right, and nothing happened. 

“Seems like it can only be opened when it’s whole,” he said, giving it back to Kida. The woman looked disappointed.

“It was worth a try.” Then her face lit up. “So, what do you say?”

“About what?” 

“About joining us and finding out what the map is all about! You have the knowledge, we have the men,” Sinbad interfered, but he only received a snort from the other man.

“Why should I be joining pirates? This half belongs to the military if anyone. And for all we know, the other half may be on some other planet. If it’s not destroyed.”

Sinbad and Kida exchanged looks, and Jim just knew they were up to something.

“But do you really have a choice here? You’re surrounded by pirates and miles of nothing but sea water,” Sinbad grinned, reminding Jim once again that he had actually been kidnapped onto this ship and had no saying in this matter. 

“Aren’t you also interested to see where the map leads us?” Kida continued.

Jim was defeated.

“Fine, then. But just so you know, I’m not doing this willingly. When the military starts looking for me, you’ll be in trouble.”

“Don’t worry about us, we know how to deal with them,” the female captain smiled sweetly, drinking the rest of his wine and getting up. “We’ll leave the first thing tomorrow.” And with those words she left the ship with his men, leaving Jim baffled about what just happened.

“That damn woman, thinking that she can order me around,” Sinbad muttered. Jim looked at him amusedly, asking one question that had been bothering him.

“Why are you two working together then?” 

Sinbad’s focus moved to Jim, and his playfulness was back again. “Why, I’m glad you asked.” He paused and seemed to think about his words. “I happen to have a lead to where the other half might be.”

“But you didn’t know whether it needed the other half or not, so why..?” 

“We both wanted to be sure. If the other half wasn’t necessary, she would probably have tried to kill me and take you with her.”

Jim could never understand pirates. Although he could kind of reason with that.

“Anyway, are you hungry? There should be some food left in the galley,” Sinbad asked, and now that Jim thought about it, he was starving. “I could come with you. “

“No. I’ll go alone,” the man refused without a second thought. He still didn’t like the captain, even if they had managed to get along enough to have a civilized conversation.

“Why do you have to be like that? We could get to know each other better since you’ll be staying with us anyway.” 

Jim rolled his eyes. “Gee, I wonder why. And I don’t want to get to know you any better than this.” 

Sinbad frowned, taking a step closer to the other man. “You know, I’ve been quite patient with you until now, but enough is enough. You should start treating me with respect.”

“Are you being serious right now?” Jim also took a step closer. “Why should I treat you like anything but a thief you are?”

“A _thief_? Don’t put me in the same category with those amateurs! At least I’m not a military’s petty dog like you! Your father must be so goddamn proud.” 

Jim froze at the mention of his father, and Sinbad must have realized it was a mistake, but it was too late now.

“Fuck. Off.”

The tone in Jim’s voice could freeze even Hell. Sinbad punched himself internally. Many, many times. Now it would be even more difficult to get the other man like him.

“I didn’t mean to…“ the captain started, but Jim had had enough. He shoved the captain out of his way and stomped back to the cabin, slamming the door after him. The crewmates, who had been listening to their conversation not-so-secretly, sent disapproving glances at their captain, and Sinbad sighed. Kale had crossed his arms, huffing and shaking his head. Even Spike stared at Sinbad.

“What would you like me to do then?” Sinbad asked, but no one answered a question that obvious. The pirate captain ran his fingers through his hair, marching then to the door and knocking it.

“Come on, open the door.” The other man didn’t even make a sound from the other side, and Sinbad knocked again with more power. “You can’t stay there forever. It’s my cabin, you know.” Still no answer. “I’m sorry, do you hear me? I’m sorr–-“ 

The door slammed against Sinbad’s face, making him fall backwards on the ground. Jim came out with a pillow and a blanket in his hands, mumbling something about ‘sleeping the night on the deck’. He didn’t even spare Sinbad a look when he stepped over him and walked to the farthest place from him he could find. Sinbad didn’t bother to go after him this time; instead he was the one to lock up into his cabin.

Kale watched them from afar, wondering to himself how Jim managed to bring out the worst in Sinbad when their captain usually managed to keep his cool even with the most annoying pirate captains.

Maybe tomorrow would be a new start for both of them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay, the new chapter is out! What do you think? I tried to make the characters as IC as possible, but sometimes it's hard since writing about them is still quite new to me, so please bear with me. If you have a character that you'd like to be in this story, you can tell me and I'll consider it. See you in the next chapter~


	3. A new destination

The tension between Jim and Sinbad was still high the next day. Jim pretended like Sinbad didn’t exist, and Sinbad tried to do the same (although Kale caught him staring at Jim a few times when he wasn’t looking). Spike had taken Jim’s side and was following him around, and the man didn’t seem to mind. 

Kale groaned. Why did they have to be so stubborn? He really didn’t want to interfere, but there wasn’t much of a choice here. It was a pain in the ass to try to work on a ship if two people hated each other’s guts because the tense atmosphere affected everyone. And that’s why he decided to talk to them.

“Do you have a second?” Kale asked Jim, who was sitting on the bow of the ship with Spike, munching on a pickled cucumber. Jim shrugged.

“I might even have two seconds since there’s not much for me to do,” the man answered, giving the rest of the cucumber to Spike. Kale snorted and leaned against the railing. 

“Sinbad is not as bad as you may think he is.” Silence. “Okay, who am I trying to fool? He’s selfish and arrogant and sometimes like a little kid, but he’s got a big heart. And he’s a great captain.” 

Jim watched Kale from the corner of his eye, seeming disinterested, but Kale knew he was listening and thinking about his words. 

“What I’m trying to say is that you don’t have to be friends. Or lovers,” Jim cringed at Kale’s words, and Kale laughed at him, “I just want you to get along without wanting to kill each other.”

The smaller man sighed and rubbed his tired eyes (it had been a bad idea to sleep on the deck; he had barely got any shut eye). Kale was right, of course, but even seeing only Sinbad’s face annoyed the hell out of him, so what could he do?

“I guess I could try,” Jim finally said, turning to look at Kale. “But I need something to do. I can’t just sit all day twiddling my thumbs.” He hated being inactive, and since he was going to stay on this ship anyway, he might as well do something that would make him forget Sinbad’s existence. 

“Leave it to me.” 

Kale hummed, satisfied at his own work as he walked towards his next victim: the captain himself. Convincing him would be a lot easier since he knew him better than Jim. 

“Sinbad.”

“Kale.”

They looked at each other, and Sinbad tried to win the staring competition, but after a while he was the one to turn his eyes away.

“What do you want? I saw you talking to Jim.” 

Sinbad knew he was acting childish, but it had taken all of his willpower to apologize to the other man yesterday, and then he hadn’t even listened to him. It seemed talking about his father was a very uncomfortable topic for him, and yes, Sinbad regretted bringing it up. Hell, he would be insulted too if someone brought his parents up in a fight, even if he hadn’t seen them in 10 years, but somehow it had just slipped out of his mouth.

“You know what I want,” Kale said, raising one of his eyebrows and nodding towards Jim. “Besides, you’re the one who wanted to go after the possible treasure. He’s the only one who knows how to use the sphere. Do you really want him to join Kida if he decides being with you on this ship is worse than being with her?”

Sinbad cursed under his breath, wondering why he had hired Kale to his crew. He always seemed to find the right things to say to convince Sinbad to do something against his will. Wasn’t he supposed to take his side on these matters? And the damn dog, too. He had heard dogs were loyal, but it seemed Spike’s loyalty had changed its course from Sinbad to Jim.

“You sound exactly like my mother… Alright, I’m going, I’m going,” the captain grunted. His steps were determined, but as he got closer to the other man his speed started slowing down more and more. What was he even going to say to him? ‘Hey, I apologize for not knowing about your daddy issues’? No way in hell. 

And before he could think of an answer to his own question, Jim was in front of him and he had to say something. Anything. 

Sinbad cleared his throat.

“About yesterday –- “ 

“About yesterday –- “

They started speaking at the same time, and they both stopped abruptly, waiting for the other to finish.

“You first –- “

“You first –- “

Again. Not a very good start.

“Okay, listen,” Jim huffed, raising his hand to stop Sinbad from saying anything else. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have lost my cool so easily.” 

“Yeah, I’m sorry too. It was stupid of me to mention your father. I... I didn’t know.”

“It really was stupid of you,” Jim agreed, but a sly grin on his face told him he was joking. The captain smiled back at him and stretched out his hand. 

“Peace?” 

Jim hesitated for a second, but then he grabbed Sinbad’s hand, accepting the peace offering with a nod. Sinbad had a strong grip, and he held Jim’s hand a little longer than needed. Jim swallowed.

They both were glad when the bridge was lowered again from Kida’s ship, interrupting the whatever-moment they had had from becoming too awkward. Kida was beautiful as usual as she strode towards them with two of her men, looking suspiciously refreshed (it was only a break of dawn, for god’s sake, and everyone in Sinbad’s crew was dead tired).

“Good morning,” she greeted and received a nod from Sinbad. 

“Are your men ready to set sail?” Sinbad asked, standing a little straighter to try to cover his tiredness. Kida said yes, and they walked together a little farther from the others to discuss the course they were planning on taking. Sinbad didn’t reveal the exact place they were going, of course, but Kida wouldn’t need to know it since she was going to follow Sinbad’s ship.

Jim’s attention moved from the captains to Kale, who was tying some ropes beside the mast. He had a fine figure, and the muscles on his back moved nicely when he moved his hands or stretched out to grab something. Jim slapped himself mentally. This was definitely not the right time or the right _person_ to start daydreaming about. 

When the captains came back they both had a satisfied smirk, which they tried to hide, on their face. Everything so far was going according to their plan. Or more likely according to their own plans since they both probably plotted against each other and tried to find ways to get rid of each other when the chance arrived.

“Alright, Jim, you’ll come with me,” Sinbad commanded and threw his arm casually around Jim’s shoulders, making the man frown in confusion at the sudden closeness. Kida pouted while watching them, and it made Jim realize that all of this was to make the other captain jealous and to show that Jim belonged to Sinbad, which he definitely did _not_.

After Kida and her crew were an earshot away, Jim freed himself and sent a glare at Sinbad. “I’m not your property.”

“I didn’t say you were.”

“No, but you acted like I was.”

“Can you two stop bickering at each other?” Kale sighed. “Captain, the course?” 

“Oh, right,” Sinbad grinned, turning around to ignore Jim and calling his crew to stop doing whatever they were doing and to come closer to listen. “Gentlemen, we’ll be soon drinking some good wine under the burning sun and having beautiful ladies serve us grapes from silver plates. This ship is going to Greece!” 

The overall tiredness seemed to disappear in the blink of an eye at the mention of Greece, and the crew started cheering. Jim didn’t understand what the fuzz was all about, although he was interested to see what kind of a country it was. He had never been to Greece before, but he had heard stories from his fellow sailors about a hero named Hercules, who had defeated many kinds of monsters. According to the legends there were also gods living there, but no one had apparently seen them in years.

The anchors were raised and the ships set sail. They had to go slower than usual because even though Kida’s ship was bigger and more pleasing to eye, it was much slower than Sinbad’s ship, and no matter how much Sinbad wanted to get rid of her, they wouldn’t do anything with only a half of a sphere if they happened to find it. They didn’t even know if it was worth the trouble since there was no guarantee that the sphere would work. Sinbad and Kida were both ready to take the risk, however, because if there actually was a treasure, it would mean enjoying the rest of their lives on a beautiful island, drinking coconut juice and living like kings. It had been the original plan with the Book of Piece, but since things had gone like they had gone, it was still only a dream.

They had been sailing for a few hours now. Sinbad wanted to concentrate on steering the ship and keeping it on the right course, but it proved to be difficult with seeing Kale and Jim hanging out together like some good friends. When had they become so close? He had thought Jim hated everyone who was a pirate, but apparently he had been wrong. He tried to ignore the gnawing feeling inside him, telling himself that it was only because he hadn’t managed to make Jim like him and was feeling annoyed when someone else had. What else would it be?

“Mr. Hawkins, what do you think you’re doing?” Sinbad called. Jim and Kale raised their heads, and Jim had the usual annoyed look on his face.

“Being of help?” the man answered, raising one of his eyebrows. Kale looked questioningly at Sinbad too, dropping the rope he had in his hands.

“Well, you can come here and be of help to me,” the captain commanded, daring the other man to say something. Which he, of course, did.

“What? Since when did you have the power to give commands to me?” Jim snapped, but to Sinbad’s surprise, he obeyed (cursing and kicking empty buckets on his way, but still obeyed). He stopped in front of him with a hand on his hip. “And since when have I been Hawkins to you?” 

Sinbad smirked, giving space for Jim to come to stand with him behind the wheel. “Say, have you ever steered a ship before?” 

Jim had never steered a ship in his life. He knew how it worked in theory, but he had never had the chance to try it himself. Besides, in space the ships were quite different than on Earth, and they weren’t always steered with a wheel. He shook his head.

“Good. I’ll teach you.” Sinbad put Jim’s hands on the wheel, and the heavy responsibility that came with being in control of the ship struck Jim. He didn’t dare to do anything until he felt Sinbad press his body against his back and place his own hands over Jim’s. Jim tensed when Sinbad rested his head on Jim’s shoulder. What the hell was the pirate doing?

“So when you do this,” Sinbad guided Jim’s hands and moved the wheel slightly, “the ship turns to right.” 

“And it turns to left when I do this?” Jim rolled the wheel carelessly, making the ship do a dangerously sharp turn that sent Sinbad and the rest of the crew who weren’t holding onto anything flying down the floor. Jim grinned and turned the wheel again to get the ship back to its course. He was pretty sure Sinbad had learned his lesson.

The captain and the men (excluding Kale, who had noticed the mischievous look on Jim’s face and had hold onto the mast, and Rat, who had been in the crow’s nest) groaned from the floor, pulling themselves up.

“Seriously?” Sinbad glared at Jim, who was trying to look innocent and hide his smugness. “I think I’ll do the steering from now on.” He tried to get back behind the wheel, but Jim didn’t let him.

“I thought you said: ‘You can come here and be of help to me’?” Jim repeated Sinbad’s words.

“Yes, but –- “ 

“So I’ll be of help to you and steer. The. Damn. Ship. Just like you said.” 

Sinbad tried to come up with something, but then he realized that he had already lost this argument, so he just huffed ‘fine, do what you want’ under his breath. He decided it was safe enough to let the man do the steering as long as he checked the course every now and then.

“That man is unbelievable,” Sinbad vented to Kale. He had marched straight to him, and now they were sitting on the railing and watching Jim do the steering. Kale chuckled.

“I didn’t know you gave up that easily,” he said. “It took you awhile to even let _me_ steer the ship because it was ‘so precious and important’ to you and you didn’t want it to take any damage.”

“I didn’t know you as well as I do now. And Jim, well, I’m quite sure the legends about him being a great sailor are true,” the captain explained, but they both knew they were just excuses. Sinbad was still very careful of his ship, and he usually didn’t let anyone else except Kale steer it. “Anyway, how long do you think it’ll take until we arrive to Greece?” 

Kale stroked his beard, thinking. “I’d say about two to three days if the wind is on our side.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this is already the third chapter! I guess this fic will be longer than I first expected because I’m getting new ideas as I write, haha... I feel like this chapter was a little bit boring, but in the next one we’ll get to go to Greece and meet new characters. Will they find the half of the sphere? Stay with me and you’ll find out!


	4. Reunion

It took them four days to get to Greece. By then Jim and Sinbad had managed to argue almost about everything (seriously, who argued over pickled eggs?), and the crew was completely fed up with their fights. It was a relief for everyone when they finally saw the land. 

To be able to use the harbor, Kida and Sinbad’s crew had had to disguise their ships to look like ordinary merchant ships. Finding their own place to anchor their ships would have been too troublesome. It was hard to change the way they looked and acted, though, so they needed to be careful not to draw any unnecessary attention to themselves. 

“Alright, gentlemen, we’re finally here,” Sinbad announced, and the crew could barely contain their excitement. “Luca and Jed, you’ll stay here to look after the ship.” The said men groaned disappointedly, but agreed with an ‘aye, aye, Captain’. 

The rest of the crew landed with Sinbad. Jim followed the busy harbor with his eyes, still amazed by everything. There was so much happening at the same time: sailors were loading their ships, people were selling fresh fish and yelling about how their prices and quality were the best, some were playing different kinds of instruments, and others were playing card games on heavy-looking boxes, trying to pass time. He loved being a sailor. 

“Jim and I are going to search for information. The rest of you can buy us food and supplies. And by buying I mean _buying_ , not stealing,” Sinbad cleared. “We don’t want to get in trouble yet.” The men nodded, starting to walk in different directions. The captain turned to Jim.

“Why do I have to come with you?” Jim sighed. 

“I thought it was obvious. I want to keep an eye on you,” the captain answered with a grin. “And before you try to run away: don’t. I’m much faster than you think.” 

“Right,” the man mumbled with a dark cloud over his head. “Besides, I thought you knew where the half of the sphere was located?”

“I do know where it is. I just don’t know how to get there. It’s a place where the living do not usually want to enter.”

That sounded dangerous. Like, really dangerous. What the hell were pirates thinking? Jim hoped Sinbad didn’t mean what he thought he meant.

“Not without me, gentlemen,” a familiar voice then called behind them. It was Kida, who had caught up with them and was wearing a long blue tunic over her usual outfit to blend in. Well, her aura still gave off some kind of pirate vibes, but otherwise she was okay. 

“I almost forgot,” Sinbad mumbled, crossing his arms. He had been hoping they would have managed to slip away without Kida noticing them. He was surprised to see her alone, though. “Where are your men?” 

Kida raised her eyebrows challengingly. “Do I look like I need a man?” 

She, indeed, did not look like she needed a man. Sinbad had never seen her fighting – and he would rather keep it that way – but he was pretty sure there was a weapon or two hidden somewhere under the tunic. And now that Sinbad thought about it, weren’t her golden earrings a little bit too sharp to be ordinary earrings?

“Guess that settles it then,” she continued when neither Sinbad nor Jim dared to say anything. “So, what exactly is this place where ‘the living do not usually want to enter’?”

Sinbad cleared his throat. “The Underworld.”

Jim stared at him like he had grown two heads. On the other hand, he wasn’t really surprised. These were pirates he was talking about. “Of course it is. Because risking your life isn’t enough, you just have to go and greet the Death literally.” 

Even though his words were full of sarcasm, somewhere deep inside him a small desire for adventures raised its head again in a long time. He didn’t want to admit it to himself, but the past two years had been incredibly boring. Yes, his life had been stable, but was that really what made him happy?

“Doesn’t sound too bad. At least there’s only one god we have to deal with,” Kida nodded. Jim wasn’t sure if she was joking or not.

“For once we’re on the same page!” Sinbad laughed. “The only problem now is how we’re going to enter the Underworld without actually, you know, dying. There are some legends of people doing that, but how, that I don’t know. And that’s what we’re going to find out.”

“To the pub?” Kida asked. People always became conveniently talkative when they had had something to drink.

“To the pub.” 

The first pub they went to was full of laughing, talking, and most importantly, drinking sailors. It wasn’t a place to get information from others, however, because the pub had an honest atmosphere around it. Entering the Underworld without dying wasn’t really a topic which these kinds of sailors would know about. The pub was also too loud, and Jim had to yell his suggestion of moving onto the next pub.

It wasn’t until the third one that they felt like they had come to the right place. The pub was located on a side alley far from the crowds, and it looked like it had been standing on the same spot for a few centuries without any repairs. Inside of it was dark, and it smelled like mold, cigarettes and rum mixed together. A typical place for people whose conversations needed a place somewhere more private, Jim thought amusedly.

There were only a few people scattered around here and there, and Jim and Sinbad decided to split up with Kida since a group of three would only raise suspicion. 

Kida walked to the bar counter and sat on the wooden stool, ordering a glass of whiskey. The quiet muttering went silent for a while, and then hums of approval could be heard from some of the people. One man even got up and sat next to her, starting a small talk. Under any other circumstances Kida would’ve told the man to get lost, but since she was here to gather information, she smiled flirtatiously and tried to seem interested in the man’s stories about himself.

“She’s already got herself busy,” Sinbad stated, glancing around his shoulder. He had taken a seat at a table farther away with Jim, and soon an older woman with fuzzy hair came to take their order. Sinbad ordered two beers without asking Jim’s opinion, which Jim found annoying but didn’t want to start a fight about since it was the most logical choice (the beers would last long enough to gather enough information and they had the least alcohol in them). 

“What’s the plan here?” Jim whispered. “It’s not like we can just straight ask if anyone has heard about entering the Underworld.”

“Watch the professional work.” The captain leaned against the back of his chair, saying in the most careless and loudest voice he could: “Ah, Jim, I wonder what I should do with these golden coins.” Jim could sense everyone’s attention turning to them, even if the quiet muttering didn’t die down. “If only I could use them to go to the Underworld alive…”

First no-one reacted (Kida sent a dirty look over her shoulder at Sinbad, almost like asking ‘weren’t we supposed to be subtle about this topic?’), but then a raspy-voiced woman laughed from one of the corner tables. 

“You’re not the first one to ask about that,” the woman croaked, drinking the liquid from her small glass in one gulp. “I remember a cyborg coming here a week ago, asking the same question.”

Jim sprang up, making the chair fall from the sudden movement almost startling Sinbad. “What? A cyborg?” He stared at the woman with a bewildered look on his face. “Did he say his name?” 

“Silver, if I recall,” the woman answered. “A friend of yours?”

Jim didn’t know what to say. Was this some kind of a sick joke? He had been trying to look for John Silver for five years, and now when he had least expected it, the damn cyborg decided to give a sign of himself. And he seemed to be after the sphere too. “You could say that.” 

“Good,” the woman nodded, drawing her sword. “Then you and your friend there can pay for the mess he made.” Jim looked around and realized that almost everyone was now starting to stand up, holding a sword or some kind of other weapon in their hands. Fuck. That escalated quickly.

“Kida, seems like it’s time for us to go,” Sinbad notified and stood up slowly. Kida sighed from the bar counter, rolling her eyes. She thanked the man sitting next to her for the drink, and then she punched him straight in the face.

The people roared as they lunged forward towards the three outsiders. Sinbad quickly drew his own sword, dodging two attacks at the same time. Jim, on the other hand, cursed for not having a weapon and had nothing but a wooden chair to block the attacks. Someone shoved him to the floor, and he rolled under a table, barely missing the spiky morning star that hit the same spot where he had been just a second ago. 

“You okay there?” Sinbad yelled over his shoulder at Jim, too busy to spare a look.

“A sword would come in handy!” He dodged another attack, trying to come up with a plan that they could use to escape. There were too many enemies to deal with them all.

“Are you sure you’re big enough to handle a sword?” Sinbad grinned as if there was something funny about the situation they were in. 

“Go to hell,” Jim growled, hitting one of the men in the stomach with his elbow. The man dropped his sword, and Jim snatched it gratefully.

“That’s the plan here!”

Sinbad didn’t notice the earlier raspy-voiced woman sneak up behind his back, and Jim watched in horror as she got ready to stab the pirate. He reacted quickly, grabbing a broken leg of a chair and shouting ‘get down’ before throwing the piece of wood violently. If Sinbad’s reflexes hadn’t been as good as Jim had expected, it would’ve hit him instead since he was standing between the leg and the woman. He was lucky, though, and he threw himself on the floor just in time. The leg of the chair hit the woman between her eyes, knocking her out. 

Sinbad watched Jim in awe. 

They didn’t have time for staring, though, because the men who had been already defeated were starting to get up, even more pissed off than before. They had to leave. Now.

“Kida!” Sinbad yelled, and Kida nodded. The captains seemed to have an odd understanding of each other’s plans without saying any words.

“Kida, wait!” someone else called out. Kida had already dashed towards the exit, but she turned around when she heard her name spoken. A surprised look spread on her face as she recognized the caller.

“Milo?”

“We don’t have time for friendly reunions now!” Sinbad grunted as he made his way towards the door.

There was only one man between Kida and the man who she apparently knew, and the female captain easily kicked him out of her way. Then she grabbed the other man by his hand, dragging him with her. 

“Let’s go!”

And they ran. 

They parted into pairs of two to lose the people chasing them easier and ran to the opposite directions. There wasn’t that many following them anyway, since many were injured and hadn’t thought it worth it to chase after them. Soon the others gave up too when they realized that they had lost them.

After making sure that no one was following them anymore, Jim and Sinbad stopped to catch their breath in an alleyway. Jim leaned his back against the brick wall, taking deep breaths. Sinbad did the same, watching the man next to him from the corner of his eye.

“You saved me.” 

Jim closed his eyes. Yes, he had, and now he regretted it. He hadn’t had time to think, he had just done what he thought was right. “Consider yourself lucky to be saved by the famous Jim Hawkins.”

Sinbad huffed, a tiny smile tugging at his lips, which he quickly hid. “Right.” A silence landed between them. ”We should go look for Kida and the other one.” They agreed and started walking to the direction where the others had run.

Kida and Milo had hid themselves behind a large cart that was filled with stacks of hay. The men chasing after them hadn’t noticed their hiding place, and they had run straight past them. Kida snickered after the coast was clear, and she turned to look at Milo.

“Why are you here? And more importantly: what the hell were you doing in that pub?” she asked. Milo looked sheepish, turning his eyes on the ground.

“Uh, yeah, about that… I came here to do research about Greece. And that pub was the only place quiet enough concentrate on – on my studies around here. Until you showed up, that is.”

Kida snorted and smiled. It was just like the Milo he knew to go to a place which had a fishy atmosphere around it just because it was quiet enough.

“But wow, at first I didn’t even recognize you! I – I mean, it’s been almost 12 years since I last saw you,” Milo continued, a smile spreading on his face too. “Then I heard the bearded man call you by your name, and I just knew it was you.” 

“Oh, yeah? Well, you haven’t changed a bit,” the female pirate grinned, giving a hug to her childhood friend. Milo still had the big round eyeglasses and the same hairstyle as he had had when they were kids. 

“So, what are you doing here?” Milo asked, and Kida realized that Milo probably didn’t know about the whole piracy thing at all. After all, she had left the town they had grown up together when she had been 15 years old and got a job on a merchant ship. A few months later the ship she had been on had sunk, and she had been rescued by pirates. And here she was now: a pirate captain herself.

“I’m here with my crew to search for an important piece of a map,” Kida said. She didn’t want to lie. Not to Milo.

“Really? So that means you’re a captain?” Milo beamed.

“Yes. And the bearded man you were talking about earlier is also a captain.”

“That’s amazing! I, uh, didn’t know that captains were allowed to have visible tattoos and such, but seems like I was wrong,” he said, referring to the blue tattoos on Kida’s face. Kida smiled sadly, and for the first time ever, she felt ashamed of being a pirate.

“Here they come,” she stated when she noticed Jim and Sinbad walking down the street. She helped Milo, whose legs had gone numb, to stand up, and they stepped out of the hiding place.

“Mind telling us now who this man with you is?” Sinbad asked Kida, looking Milo down and up with crossed arms. The man definitely didn’t look like a pirate; more of a teacher if anything. He wondered where the two knew each other from. 

Kida put her hand on Milo’s shoulder. “This is Milo, he’s my childhood friend. And Milo, this is Jim,” she motioned towards the said man, “and the other one is… Sinbad.” 

Milo’s eyebrows drew together as he was trying to remember where he had heard that name before. Then he remembered. “A… a pirate? You’re working with a pirate?” 

“Why, yes, at least someone knows me!” Sinbad grinned but shut his mouth when Kida stared at him. 

“I’m a pirate myself, too,” Kida admitted after picking up her courage. Her eyes were full of sadness as she watched Milo open and close his mouth repeatedly like a fish, being at loss for words. Then he seemed to decide something in his mind.

“Um, well, I’m not against it, I was just a little bit, uh, surprised,” he rambled. “I guess I could’ve seen this coming. Being an ordinary sailor wouldn’t, you know, suit you as well as being a pirate.” 

Kida knew it was a compliment, even if it was said in an awkward way. The small pat from Milo on her upper back confirmed it, and she started grinning in relief. Sinbad and Jim watched their interaction, and they both seemed confused to see someone being so close and friendly with Kida. And it was even more confusing that Kida let him.

“I don’t want to ruin the moment, but we should look for another place to gather information since our hot-blooded guy Jim here ruined our chances in the last place,” Sinbad said, earning a glare from Jim. The captain was curious to ask about why the cyborg was so important to Jim, but he knew he wouldn’t get an answer. The most important thing right now was to worry about the fact that the said cyborg seemed also to be after the sphere. _Their_ sphere. 

“What kind of information are you looking for?” Milo asked. “I – I don’t want to brag, but I do have some sort of knowledge.” 

Sinbad glanced at Kida, and since she didn’t show any signs of telling about the map to her childhood friend to be a bad idea, he answered: “We’re looking for a half of a map. We know it’s located in the Underworld, but the problem is how we’re going to get there. Alive.”

“The Underworld? Why didn’t you say so!” 

He started searching for something from his bag, ending up dropping half of the papers and documents inside it. After they all had helped him pick them up, he grabbed one of the papers, eyeing through it quickly. When he found the thing he was looking for, he started smiling excitedly, pointing something on the paper. 

“This is it! This will help you get there,” Milo announced, and Sinbad snatched the paper from his hand. He squinted his eyes as he tried to read it.

“How do you know what this says? What language even is this?” 

Kida snatched the paper to herself, giving it back to Milo. Milo looked sheepish again.

“The paper is written in Ancient Greek, so it may be, uh, hard to read if you can’t speak Ancient Greek,” he explained. “I’m a linguist, so I know what it says. It’ll take some time to translate it, though, but if you’re eager to know…”

“Wonderful! You can come with us, then,” Kida smiled.

“He’s not coming with us,” Sinbad refused. 

The two captains seemed to go an internal fight against each other through staring, and Jim decided to interfere before the fight actually took a physical form: “It’s the most logical thing to take him with us. None of us can speak Ancient Greek, and if you want to get there before… before the cyborg, we should use any help we can get.” God, he already sounded like a pirate.

Sinbad closed his eyes and took a deep breath, rubbing his temple. “Why are you always against me?” 

“So it’s a yes, then?” Kida received a resistant nod from the other captain. Everyone’s eyes turned to Milo, who realized that he didn’t really have a choice here. Not that he didn’t want to help; he was glad to see Kida and to get to spend some time with her in a long time. 

“Well, I was the one to suggest helping you, so I guess I’m coming!” 

After the agreement they started walking back to the harbor. Milo would need some time to translate the text, and they all needed to prepare for the trip. Sinbad let Jim keep the sword (“if it’ll help you to save my life again, then by all means, keep it”), but he decided to be extra careful with him from now on. Especially since the man had finally brought his pillow and blanket back to the captain’s cabin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’ve been quite busy with playing Life is Strange (it was an amazing game), so this chapter took longer than usually to write. I know the whole pub thing is from England, but I thought that since the harbor in this story is an international one, it wouldn’t hurt if I used the term ‘pub’. :D _Faroreshowl_ asked if I could use Milo in this fic, so here you go~ (Also I finally figured out how to prevent the notes of the first chapter from always showing in the latest chapter, lol.)
> 
> Happy New Year everyone! Thanks for reading this, it means so much to me.


	5. The trip to the Underworld

”Checkmate,” Jim smirked as he captured the king for the fifth time in a row. Jed slammed his hands dramatically against his face as the crew gathered around them to watch their match of chess started laughing. A few of them patted Jim’s shoulder impressed by his abilities, and Jin threw Li a coin (Jim had noticed that they were always betting money on everything). Jed handed over the last coins he had, and Jim placed them on the top of the growing pile of money in front of him. 

“Okay, I think I’ve had enough now,” he said, stuffing the money in his pockets and getting up. He didn’t want to rob these poor men blind, after all. They had turned out to be quite nice under all that pirate attitude. Jim wouldn’t say that he trusted them yet, but he wasn’t entirely against them either. At least they could keep him company until he was free again.

“Having fun?” Kale asked. He handed Jim a bottle full of something that smelled strongly like rum, and Jim accepted it gratefully. He wasn’t much of a drinker, but it wouldn’t do him any harm if he drank every now and then. 

“Absolutely. Maybe you should play one match against me too.” He took a gulp of the bottle, handing it then back to Kale.

“Oh no, not after I watched you beat all those others,” the shirtless man grinned.

The waiting had become quite boring. Sinbad had disappeared somewhere early in the morning without telling anyone where he was going, and Kida was supposed to come to get them when Milo had translated the paper. It had been hours now, and Jim was growing restless. John Silver had come here a week before them, so it might mean that he had got his hands on the half of the sphere already. And if he had not, every minute of waiting meant a minute of more time for Silver to find some way to get there before them. 

Jim sighed. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to meet the cyborg or not. He missed him, of course, but at the same time he was angry with him. He had left him like his father. Jim understood his reasons, but it didn’t mean that it didn’t hurt. 

“What are you thinking about?”

Jim looked at Kale, and suddenly he wanted to tell him everything. About his mother, about his father, about the cyborg, about how much Sinbad got on his nerves (although he probably knew that already), about his past as a hooligan, and about the adventures he had had. Somehow he trusted Kale, and he didn’t know why. Maybe it was those honest eyes (as honest as a pirate’s could get), or the genuine interest he showed in Jim. It didn’t even matter that he had tried to kill him. Now they were kind of on the same side here – even if Jim had been forced on it – so it would be nice if he had someone he could talk to. 

“Well…” 

“Hey, it’s Captain!” Rat yelled, and everyone’s head turned to look at the man who jumped onto the ship, seeming deep in thought. He didn’t pay attention to anyone; he walked straight into his cabin instead. The crew seemed slightly disappointed, but they continued on playing the chess as if nothing had happened.

“What’s this all about?” Jim muttered to himself, jogging after the captain because he knew no-one else wanted or could do it. It wasn’t fair that he made the crew wait for him all day, and then he didn’t even tell them where he had gone or why. 

Sinbad was lying on his hammock when Jim barged in. He had pulled his hat on the top of his face so that his eyes weren’t showing. 

“What now?” He didn’t even look at him.

“Where the hell have you been?” Jim stopped in front of the pirate, crossing his arms. 

“I don’t think it’s any of your business.” 

Wait, did he sound… sad?

Jim backed and sat on the edge of his bed, thinking carefully what he should say next. He could start a fight to let the man take out his feelings on him, but he wasn’t really in the mood for fighting. He could also just walk away and leave Sinbad be, but he wasn’t that heartless either. Honestly, he had no idea how to deal with gloomy pirate captains. 

“Okay, what is it?” Jim asked. He got no answer. “Is this about me? Because I swear to god if it’s – “

“Not everything is about you, Hawkins.” Sinbad turned his back to him, clearly signaling that he didn’t want to talk about this topic anymore. But Jim didn’t give up so easily.

“So we’re back to Hawkins now. If it’s not about me then who is it about? Did you get rejected by someone? Or are these just your regular mood swings?”

Sinbad grunted, moving the hat away from his eyes and facing Jim. “Will you leave me alone if I tell you?” 

“It depends.” 

“Fine. I met with an old… friend of mine who happened to be nearby. There you go. Now, don’t talk to me again unless it’s about Kida or the map.” He shut himself completely. 

Jim rolled his eyes and left the cabin. Sinbad’s answer raised even more questions. Who was this friend and why did Sinbad feel sad about meeting them? He would have to try to pry information from the crewmates since they would know more about this matter. Kale was the captain’s right hand, so he wouldn’t probably say a word, but maybe someone else. Someone who was used to observing people and things… Rat! 

Rat had been previously in the group of people who had watched Jim play chess, but now he was nowhere to be seen. After searching for him everywhere, there was only one place left where he could possibly be: the crow’s nest. 

Jim looked up the tallest mast. He had no choice but to climb.

Halfway up the mast he was glad for his military training. No matter how fit he was, it was tiresome to hold himself up like this. The ropes helped, but not very much. 

“Rat? You there?” 

With sheer adrenaline he managed to drag himself up, and soon he saw Rat’s face peeking over the railing. He gave him a hand and helped him up, and Jim slumped down onto the floor. 

“Thanks.”

“You’re welcome,” Rat said. “What brings you up here?” He sat on the railing, looking at Jim with a curious look. The white bandana he wore made dark shadows appear over his eyes, but Jim had gotten quite used to him by now and it didn’t creep him out anymore.

“It’s, uh… I was just wondering if Sinbad had any friends outside of the crew.” The question sounded stupid now that Jim said it out loud. Why he even bothered, he wasn’t sure.

Rat scratched his head as he thought about Jim’s question. “Well, there’s _Señor_ Proteus. A very handsome young prince, yes. He was Captain’s best friend once. Why do you ask?” 

“Sinbad was friends with a _prince_?” Jim snorted. “Doesn’t really suit him. Anyway, would he have any business here in Greece?”

“Not that I can think of. He’s probably busy in Syracuse now that he’s going to be the king soon.” 

Right. That’s what he had thought. He was also pretty sure that Sinbad wouldn’t be so gloomy after meeting an old friend like he had said. Maybe it wasn’t a friend after all…

“Did Sinbad happen to have a lover?” 

Rat’s face lit up as the memories came back to him, and he leaned towards Jim in excitement. “ _Señorita_ Marina! Oh, what a woman. She was Proteus’ fiancée, but even we could see that Captain fell in love with her during the time she came with us to get the Book of Piece back. She was such a lovely lady… She broke Captain’s heart, though, when she decided to stay with Proteus. Captain hasn’t been with anyone ever since.”

Jim felt like he had heard something that wasn’t for him to know. He had invaded Sinbad’s privacy, and somehow he felt bad about it. He was already in this deep, though, so he decided to continue. 

“And would Marina have any business here?”

“Maybe. I heard Proteus gave her a ship as a birthday present.”

That was it. It had to be. He didn’t know why or what Marina was doing in Greece, but he was sure that she was the ‘old friend’ Sinbad had mentioned. And if they had met today, it was no wonder Sinbad was feeling sad. Unrequited love was never a funny thing, Jim should understand if anyone. Why Sinbad had thought it to be a good idea to see her, no-one would know. 

“Thanks, Rat. You’re not as bad as I thought you were,” Jim smiled. Rat chuckled, nodding at his words.

“I take that as a compliment, _Señor_ Jim.”

Jim decided to stay in the crow’s nest for a while after Rat had gone back to play chess, and he watched the leaving and coming ships. Up here he could see the whole harbor. The sun was shining brightly and the seagulls were almost like chattering at him as they flew by. The sea was Jim’s home, and no pirate could ever take it away from him.

He wondered what kind of woman Marina was. She had to be quite amazing if she had managed to make Sinbad fall in love with her. Rat had described her as ‘lovely’, but how lovely could one be if they messed around with two guys at the same time while being engaged to one of them? He sort of felt bad for Sinbad.

His thoughts went back to Eric, whose ship had probably reached its destination already. The kidnapping had probably reached the military’s ears by now, and soon they would send a ship or two after the pirates. Jim hoped they wouldn’t reach them before he and the crew had managed to find the damn map and meet Silver again. This was his only chance to see the cyborg, no matter how mixed his feelings were about him.

Jim noticed that a small boat was sent from Kida’s ship, and on it were Kida and Milo. It seemed like Milo had finally translated the paper. 

“Well? What does it say?” 

Sinbad, who had dragged his ass back on the deck after someone – probably Kale – had told him Kida was coming, was the one to ask the question that was on everyone’s mind. Even Spike seemed eager to know as he had stopped wagging his tail and was now staring at the duo. 

Milo fumbled with the paper, adjusting his glasses.

“Um, I wasn’t sure about all of the parts, but the main message was to travel to the temple of Hades, the Necromanteion, when the moon is full, and light a fire on the biggest altar. After that you should sacrifice food and blood, and then apparently a woman will appear who will guide you to the Underworld. But,” Milo paused, “only four can pass the gates to the Underworld. If anyone else tries to follow, they will, uh, drop dead.”

Dead silence landed on the crew as everyone thought about what Milo had just said. Kida broke the silence by clearing her throat.

“It means that you and I get to choose one man from our crew to go there with us,” she said to Sinbad. “Unless you’re not man enough to go?”

The captain huffed. “Obviously I’m going. And I’m taking Jim with me.”

“What? Why?” Jim protested but was ignored.

“As for me, I choose Milo.” Kida landed her hand on the shoulder of the man standing next to her, and a small blush crept up on his cheeks from the attention. “He’s not a fighter, but we need him to get everything right at the temple.”

“As long as he doesn’t get in the way,” Sinbad grunted. He wasn’t pleased to have even more people to share the possible treasure with. He hoped the awkward man would have some sense and not come with them after they had found the other piece of the sphere. 

“Are they serious about fighting a god?” Jim muttered to himself, making Kale laugh.

“Pirates never joke about things like that,” he stated. “Seems like Sinbad trusts your fighting skills enough to take you with him.”

“He can trust all he wants, but I’m not going to duel with a _god_. Especially not with a god of Death.” 

“Alright, men!” Sinbad yelled, getting everyone’s attention. “The full moon is tonight, so we four must leave immediately to make it on time to the temple. Kale will be in command of this ship until I get back. Understood?” Several ‘aye, aye, Captain’s were heard, and the captain crossed his arms satisfied. 

The crew gathered to stand in line to say goodbye to Jim and their captain as they walked by. Kale nodded and smiled at Jim, and Jim did the same. Sinbad noticed their exchange from the corner of his eye, and he raised his eyebrows but didn’t say anything. 

Kida helped Milo carry all the stuff he had bought (including maps, some sheets of paper, candles, matches, band aids, and god knows what else). He had three bags, each not very light-looking. 

He really prepared for this, Jim thought amused. He himself had only the sword and a small bag the pirates had given him (it had most likely food and water in it). 

After they all were landed, they decided to rent a carriage drawn by a mule (an old mule and a worn-out carriage were all they could afford since being a pirate didn’t come with much of an income and stealing wasn’t an option right now). Going by carriage would take them faster to Necromanteion than by going on foot, but it would still take hours according to Milo and his map. None of them knew how to drive a carriage, though, so they decided the driver by doing the old rock-paper-scissors. Sinbad lost.

“Well isn’t this a sight,” Kida snickered, “the Legend of the Seven Seas driving a mule-drawn carriage.”

Sinbad sat on the driver’s bench, clenching his fists around the reins of the harness and sulking (he was glad that his crew wasn’t here to see this). Kida and Milo were pressed together on one side of the carriage, and Jim sat on the other side with Milo’s bags. Milo had the map in his hands, and he was giving instructions to Sinbad on which road they should take and such. 

It took them a while to get out of the harbor without colliding with people and other carriages, but eventually they found their way out of the town and onto a hilly path. No one talked much, except for Milo’s ‘what beautiful scenery’ or ‘Greece is really a wonderful country’. The mule seemed like it would collapse on any second, so during uphill everyone had to get off and push the carriage, and during downhill they got on again. 

“How much longer? The sun is almost set. It will be difficult to travel when it’s dark,” Sinbad said, stretching his sore neck and back. Sitting so much was tiresome, and the bumpy road didn’t help at all. 

Milo squinted his eyes, trying to place their location on the map. “I’d say it’s right behind the next hill, but… I can’t be sure. It’s located near the river, so we – we should be able to find it as long as we follow the river on our left. I think.”

Milo was right, and soon they could see the Necromanteion standing between two high hills. There was no-one around, but there were signs of campfire being made near the temple. Sinbad parked the carriage a little farther away from the temple, tying the mule to a tree. 

“Stay here,” Sinbad ordered, patting the mule on the back. The mule neighed. 

“Doesn’t something feel a little bit off about this place?” Jim wondered out loud, looking up and down the temple as he walked up the stairs leading to the entrance. Even though the sun should have still provided enough light to see inside the temple, it was pitch-black inside. 

“It’s a temple of Death, after all,” Kida commented as she followed Jim’s steps with Milo.

“It’s not just that. It’s something different… I can’t put my finger on it.” Jim decided to leave it be, though. It was probably just his imagination. “Do we have to wait until it’s past midnight or can we go in now?” 

“Why should we wait? The sooner, the better!” Sinbad grinned, marching past them into the temple. Milo just shrugged his shoulders since he didn’t remember the text saying anything about the time other than on full moon, and everyone followed Sinbad inside.

“Did you bring those candles?” Sinbad asked Milo and stopped after a couple of steps, almost making Jim bump into him. His eyes should have gotten used to the darkness by now, but he still couldn’t see anything. 

“Uh, yes, wait a second,” Milo dropped his bags on the floor and crouched over them. He rummaged the bags thoroughly until he found a candle for each one of them, and he lit them on fire.

“That’s better,” Sinbad stated after getting his vision back. The hall of the temple was big, and there were a lot of paintings on the walls. Closer study showed that they were all portrayals of Hades from different eras (Sinbad could do nothing but admire the god’s self-esteem. And that blue flaming hair of his). 

“We should be looking for altars of some kind,” Kida said, holding the hand of Milo who was gaping at the paintings. She didn’t dare to let go of his hand in case there was some place he could get lost into.

At the end of the hall there was a tunnel leading underground. Jim was already having second thoughts, but he followed everyone else because he didn’t want to be left alone in the hall. 

“Stay close to me.” Jim was surprised to hear Sinbad’s words and he wanted to say something along the lines ‘I’m not a child anymore, I don’t need you worrying about me’, but for once he felt glad about the other’s presence, so he restrained his tongue. Even if it was the pirate’s fault that he was in this situation in the first place.

The underground tunnel was so narrow everyone had to hunch their back a little not to hit their heads on the ceiling. The air around them was humid and suffocating and it smelled like it had been there for at least a hundred years. There were also weird markings on the walls, and not even Milo knew what they meant.

Everyone was relieved to see that the tunnel opened out into another smaller hall. What they saw there made their eyes widen, though: there were burning torches hanging on the walls, but no-one was around. And they hadn’t seen anyone in the previous hall either, so there was no place to hide.

“I think I’ve read about this somewhere. Those are probably the torches that have been burning here since the temple was built,” Milo explained fascinated. “They’ve been burning over 2000 years… Amazing!”

“I can see the altars, too,” Kida nodded. “Let’s light the fire. The biggest one, wasn’t it?”

Kida used the oil Milo had carried in one of his bags (he had seriously prepared for everything) and the fire from her candle. Then she threw a piece of bread into the fire, watching it burn.

“How are we supposed to sacrifice blood?” Jim intruded. He definitely didn’t want to sacrifice any poor animals. Or humans.

Milo searched the paper with the ancient text from his bag, eyeing it through. “Sacrificing blood most likely means a drop of blood from everyone who wishes to enter the Underworld. This doesn’t say anything else about it.”

“Okay. So,” Sinbad drew his sword, “a drop of blood, huh?” He made a small cut on one of his fingertips, holding it over the fire and squeezing a drop of blood out of it. Everyone else did the same (Milo with his eyes closed in pain), and they waited. 

Nothing happened.

“D-did we miss something?” Milo was about to check the document again, but then the fire on the altar burst into big flames, startling everyone. As the fire started changing colors from red to green and from green to blue, the hall started shaking. 

“What the hell is happening?” Sinbad yelled. When he turned towards the exit, he saw it was sealed shut by a stone wall like it had never even existed. They had no place to escape to. 

“Look!”

The wall behind the altars started moving, making rocks fall from the ceiling. Sinbad pushed Jim on the ground, covering his body with his own. Kida grabbed Milo from the collar of his shirt, pressing him and herself flat against the closest wall that wasn’t moving. 

When the rocks had stopped falling and the dust had settled, Sinbad hold himself up, looking at the man under him.

“You okay?” he asked with a worried tone. 

Jim didn’t realize that he had stopped breathing at some point, so he exhaled and inhaled a few times before he managed to croak a ‘yeah’. Sinbad looked serious until he realized their position, and he quickly jumped up. 

Sinbad was definitely not flustered. Why would he be? He was a pirate captain. He was never flustered. (Or at least that’s what he told himself.)

Jim was going through mixed emotions, but they were all forgotten when he saw the gates the wall had revealed. 

The gates were gigantic and decorated with some sort of symbols. They creaked slightly open, and a woman dressed in a purple Greek dress walked out. She had his brown hair tied up into a high ponytail, and she looked like this was the most boring place in the world to have been summoned to. 

“So, you’re here for a tour in the Underworld?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m so sorry for not updating this in a long time! ;_; My school started three weeks ago and I’ve had too much work to do. The time between updates will probably be from one week to a month from now on, depending on how busy I am and how long chapters I write. But don’t worry, I’ll finish this fic even if it takes a long time!
> 
> I hope this chapter was worth waiting for, it’s a little bit longer than usually. If you see any grammatical errors or have the need to point out some plot holes or anything, feel free to do so and tell me. :D I’m blind to my own mistakes, and sometimes things that make sense to me don’t make sense to you readers. As always, thanks for reading and see you in the next chapter.


	6. Hi, the name's Hades

No-one dared to say a word. They couldn’t believe the ritual had actually worked. All of them stared at the woman in the purple dress, until finally Kida took a step forward and spoke.

“My name is Kida. Are you the one who is supposed to lead us to the Underworld?”

The woman gave Kida the once-over, and she seemed to decide she liked her since a smile appeared on her face. “That’s me. I’m Megara, by the way. You can call me Meg.” 

Sinbad seemed ready to introduce himself too, but Meg didn’t even spare a look at him. She turned around, motioning them to follow her. Kida grinned at Sinbad’s devastated look and whispered something that no-one else could hear to Milo. Milo was baffled for a second, but then he nodded.

“Shall we go then?” Kida didn’t wait for an answer before she walked through the gates to the other side. 

The rest of them followed her example, Jim staring at Sinbad’s back in front of him. He was really confused at this point. Sinbad had just protected him out of sheer responsibility, so why was his mind repeating that moment over and over in his head? And why had Sinbad been so jumpy after that? A few days earlier he had practically flirted with him in front of everyone. 

The Underworld was different from what everyone had imagined. It was like a dark and spooky, enormous cave, and there was this certain kind of atmosphere surrounding it, but there were no bodies screaming or people being tortured. At least not in this part of it. 

The gates closed behind them with a loud thump. There was no turning back now.

“What brings you here anyway?” Meg asked and slowed her steps so she could walk beside Kida. Her hand brushed against hers. “It’s not like people are dying to come to the Underworld. Pun intended.” 

Kida chuckled, fiddling with her hair. “We are actually here to look for something. Maybe you’ve heard of a map – it looks like a half sphere.” 

Something flickered in Meg’s eyes, but it was gone in a split second. “Sorry, I don’t know anything about a map. You should ask Hades. I can take you to him.”

“That would be nice,” Kida nodded. They walked in silence for a while until she gathered her courage to ask the question that had been bothering her since she had laid her eyes on Meg. “I don’t mean to sound rude or cliché, but why does a woman like you work in a place like this?”

Meg laughed dryly, not meeting Kida’s eyes. “It’s a long story, but let’s just say that I owe Hades.”

Sinbad, who had been observing their interaction, elbowed Jim slightly and whispered: “Is it just me or is there something going on between Kida and the lady in purple?” 

Jim ignored the shivers Sinbad’s voice sent down his spine and stared at the two women. “I thought she liked that Milo guy.” Both of them turned to look at Milo, who was admiring his surroundings and writing something down onto a notepad. “Or maybe they’re just friends after all.” He shrugged his shoulders. It was none of his concern. 

“You’re no fun, Jim,” Sinbad sighed. He grinned when Jim rolled his eyes.

They stopped in front of something that looked like a river, but after taking a closer look they realized the river actually consisted of thousands of pale souls. Meg led them to a black boat, which started moving on its own when everyone had hopped on. 

Jim eyed warily the dead souls floating only centimeters away from him, and when one of them tried to grab his hand, he flinched away in disgust. He felt bad for them, yes, but he didn’t want them to drag him with them either. 

Everyone seemed to have the same thought as they stayed as far from the edges of the boat as possible. Only Meg seemed disinterested in the souls, and she kicked them away every time they tried to touch her like it was a normal day for her. It probably was.

“Try not to stare at him. He’s not very keen on visitors,” Meg said. Everyone looked around to see who she was referring to. 

Something moved in the darkness of the cave next to them, and a big dog – almost the size of a house if not even bigger – lunged forward, barking and growling. It had three heads with sharp teeth and red eyes, and all of the heads looked hungry. Fortunately it was too far from them to actually eat them, but the river of souls flowed right next to it. 

“That’s one hell of a watchdog,” Sinbad whistled.

The dog continued growling until Meg threw a piece of meat to it. The three heads started fighting over the meat, and they became distracted enough to let the boat pass. 

“He’s here to prevent the souls from leaving, if you were wondering,” Meg explained. 

The boat stopped in front of an opening, where green, grim light was coming out. They jumped off the boat onto a piece of land, glad to have managed to pass the river of souls safely. They could still hear the three-headed dog growling, so they quickly moved through the opening in case the dog decided to follow them. 

They were met with a high stairway leading up. The chilly air had become somewhat humid on this side of the cave, making their clothes stick uncomfortably to their skin. The humid air made also the stairs slippery, and Jim had to stop Milo from falling a couple of times. 

“One would think the Underworld was flaming hot, but apparently it isn’t,” Sinbad stated, trying to get some air between his shirt. “I’d take the flaming hot anytime instead of this feverish air.”

“Oh, believe me, Tough guy; you don’t want to be here when it gets hot,” Meg snorted with mockery in her voice. “Although if you really want to test your luck, all you have to do is make Hades lose his temper. Shouldn’t be too hard.”

“Tough guy..?” Jim grinned at Sinbad’s new nickname, and he earned a shove from Sinbad. 

“Shut up, Hawkins.” 

“Make me.” Jim didn’t mean for it to sound like a suggestion; it just kind of slipped out of his mouth. He became aware of the meaning behind his words when he noticed Sinbad’s gaze dropping to his lips and his mouth opening slightly. “Not that I would actually, you know, want to.” Sinbad’s gaze jumped back up to Jim’s eyes, and then he turned awkwardly away like he had been caught stealing something.

Well that was weird, Jim thought to himself. The previous Sinbad would have totally done something to make him uncomfortable. He felt relieved, but at the same time there was this some sort of disappointment growing inside him. Was Sinbad feeling guilty because he still loved Marina? Okay, Jim couldn’t be hundred percent sure if the person Sinbad had met earlier today had been her, but it was quite obvious. And why the hell did it bother him so much?

The stairs ended to a door, and Meg opened it with a lazy kick. She told everyone to wait there as she walked in, closing the door behind her. They could hear a fierce conversation starting in the next room:

“Meg, my beautiful little flower, how many times have I told you to KNOCK?”

“I already lost count. There are people who are here to see you.” 

The person who Meg was talking to went silent for a while, and then everyone could practically hear the grin in his voice as he said: “Excellent. Bring them in.” 

“Gu-guys, wait – is this really a good idea? I have a bad feeling about this,” Milo whispered, clutching his notepad. “The stories in the books I’ve read don’t exactly describe Hades as a god with good deeds.”

“Maybe you should have mentioned that before we came here,” Jim whispered back. He agreed with Milo; Hades would probably want something in return if he had the map. He just hoped it wouldn’t be anything too bad.

“It’s going to be fine,” Kida reassured.

The door slammed open, and Hades himself stood there before them. His hair was as blue as in the paintings in the temple, and he was wearing a long black robe. They grayness of his skin could easily compare with dead people. 

“Welcome to my little lair, brave ones. Come on in, come on in, don’t stand out there in the cold!” Hades motioned them to come in, and he stared at them with hunger in his eyes as they walked past him. Sinbad stepped between him and Jim, eyeing the god warily. Hades seemed to notice it too, and his unsettling grin only widened. He closed the door.

“I have been expecting you. Worms?” The god offered them a bowl full of wiggling worms. Everyone’s face told him the answer. “More for me, then.” He slurped one in his mouth and sat down on a black simplified throne.

“How did you know we would come?” Sinbad asked. He was less intimidated by the god than he would have first imagined. It was probably because of the hair. 

“I have my resources,” Hades smiled, leaning back on the throne. “Sinbad, my favorite man. How’s Eris doing? Heard you were pretty close with her the last time I checked.” 

“If by close you mean her nearly killing me, then yes, I guess she’s doing fine,” Sinbad smiled politely. He glanced around the room they were in: there weren’t any furniture besides the throne and a round table, and the walls were decorated with black skulls and odd-looking statues.

“Right, right,” the god didn’t even seem to listen as he sipped a drink that had appeared in his hand. “And Jim! I’m so glad you decided to visit me before your time. You look just like your father.” 

Jim’s face turned pale, and he clenched his fists.

“Enough!” Kida stepped forward just as Sinbad was about to do the same. She didn’t know why Jim had gotten pale at the mention of his father, and it wasn’t her business either, but she knew the god was trying to manipulate them; trying to get something to hold over them. “If you were expecting us, you also know why we’re here.”

Hades’ eyes narrowed at Kida’s commanding tone, and the cocktail glass in his hand shattered. His eyes met with Meg’s, who was leaning against a wall with crossed arms, and Meg shook his head slightly. Hades seemed to regain his cool, and his gaze went back to Kida. “Kida, the sweet pirate princess. Getting straight down to business, huh?” Hades got up and started circling them. “Of course I know why you’re here. And I’m willing to give you what you want.”

“Really?” Kida was honestly surprised. She had thought it would take more to persuade him.

“There’s just this teensy-weensy, tiny little detail in this deal.” The god started grinning. “You have to find it from a labyrinth! Doesn’t sound too bad, right? I know, I know, I’m the most generous god there is.”

“What’s the catch?” Sinbad asked suspiciously. The god’s offering sounded too good to be true.

“Oh, no, there’s no catch. Although,” the god stopped behind Jim, lowering his hand on his shoulder and leaning closer, “the game wouldn’t be fun without a little bit excitement, am I right?”

“What are you – ?” A horrible feeling washed over Jim.

Hades snapped his fingers, and Jim disappeared. Sinbad stared at the place where he had been standing just a second ago, and soon his shock turned into anger.

“What the fuck did you do to him?” He grabbed the smug-looking god’s collar.

“Relax, Space boy is fine. For now at least.”

“What do you mean? Where is he?” 

Hades rolled his eyes and moved his hand once like he was casting a spell. An image of Jim tied up with a rope in a closed room appeared on one of the walls, and Sinbad and the others sighed in relief. At least he wasn’t in immediate danger. 

“You know, the longer you wait the faster he’s going to die.” Hades smiled, freeing himself from Sinbad’s grip. “The room gets hotter and hotter every minute until he’s done for.” 

“No!” Sinbad turned to look at Jim again, but the image vanished. 

The god snapped his fingers again, and this time they all were in a different place: in front of an opening of a labyrinth.

“Alright, listen. There are two paths. One leads to the map and the other leads to Jim. I can’t tell you which one is which because where’s the fun in that?” Hades chuckled. “The rules are simple: die or live. Easy to remember, huh?”

Sinbad wanted to punch him, but there were more important matters now than beating the devil out of the devil himself. He couldn’t forgive himself if something happened to Jim. He had been the one to pull him into this mess; he was going to be the one to make sure he would get back alive. 

“Sinbad, we have to split up,” Kida marched up to him with determination on her face and Milo trailing behind her. “I can’t let Milo go alone, so he and I will go together. Let’s hope we’ll find Jim before he’s…”

Sinbad nodded. He didn’t need to hear the rest. Before he rushed into the labyrinth he sent a glare at Hades, and Hades answered with raising his eyebrows amusedly. The god watched the three of them go on their own separate ways, and when they were out of earshot, he turned to Meg, who had been quiet the whole time. 

“Good job bringing them to me, sunshine! You have earned your freedom soon enough. We’ll just have to wait a little bit longer until the boy dies and Sinbad sells his soul to save him and takes your place. It brings back memories, doesn’t it? The way you sold yourself to me to save your boyfriend.”

Hades’ words made Meg bite her lip and close her eyes in pain. She didn’t want to be reminded of it again. 

“Ex-boyfriend. And it was a mistake for which I have been paying for over thousand years,” she answered, turning away. Hades laughed.

“Worry not, my darling. You saw the way Sinbad looked at Jim. It won’t even be a question if he sells his soul or not. I’ll even get two extra souls since there’s no way the woman and Specky are going to make it.”

Meg tried to smile. Isn’t this what she wanted the most? Freedom? 

Somehow she still felt empty inside.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The chapter's finally out! I have been struggling with a writer's block and being insecure about my writing style, and sometimes I feel like this story is too fast-paced for my own liking, but yeah. Anyway. What do you think about Hades? He's so far the funniest character to write about. :D I was personally excited about adding him (and Meg) into this story.
> 
> Comments and kudos are always appreciated!


	7. Trapped

“Can anybody hear me? What’s going on?” 

Jim struggled and tried to get out of the ropes, but they only seemed to tighten around him the more he moved. He glanced around the small room to see if there was something that could help him, anything with a sharp edge, but no; just bare walls with four dim lamps attached to them. There weren’t even any doors or windows. He was all alone, locked up in a room with no way out and he would either suffocate to death or die from starvation and dehydration. 

He let his head fall back on the floor and closed his eyes. He took a few deep breaths, reminding himself that this wasn’t the first time he had been in a situation like this. He would make it through this, just like the last dozen times. A hysterical outburst of laughter escaped his mouth. Somehow he always managed to get himself into situations like this. It wasn’t even his fault this time, really. He had thought he would stop getting into trouble after he had quit being a rebellious young teenager and become a military cadet, but the trouble always seemed to find him no matter what. 

“I’m not going to let an unfair god take my life away so easily!” Jim muttered. He rolled onto his other side to get a better view of the room. If the lamps were a bit brighter it would be easier to… The lamps!

He wormed himself closer to one of the lamps, and it looked just low enough to be within his reach. He settled himself so that he was lying on his back on the floor legs up against the wall, and he started giving strong kicks to the lamp above him. The glass didn’t give up easily, but after persistent hammering it finally shattered. His mouth stretched into a big grin as the pieces of the glass rained on him and on the floor. 

Jim tried to move as carefully as he could, but he still got cuts on his back and cheek from the shards, making him grit his teeth. He reached out as far behind as he could with ropes tied around his wrists and arms, and soon his hand met with a shard that felt big enough to cut ropes with. Sweat started to form on his forehead as he sawed the rope, and he grunted when he accidentally cut the palm of his hand.

“Yes!” Jim cheered as he felt the rope around his wrists snap. “Two more left to go.”

It was easier to cut the ropes around his arms and legs, and he finally got to rub the painful bruises and pick out the shards that had dug into his skin. Sweat trickled down his back as he got up, and he wiped away the hair that had stuck to his face. When had it gotten so hot? It wasn’t like he had done that much exercise while trying to break free either. Jim decided to worry about it later – maybe it would cool down after a while. His number one priority was to find a way out. 

He patted carefully each wall through, trying to find a mechanism of some sort. He checked every corner, every little inch that might have a way to freedom. He jumped on the floor and pushed the ceiling, and he even tried magic words like ‘open sesame’. Then he started hitting the walls with his fists. 

The earlier feeling of relief started to fade, and a pounding heart and shaking hands started creeping up on him instead. The hot air felt suffocating and burned his throat, and Jim had to sit down. There really was no way out. He rubbed his temples, trying to remember all of the instructions on building a solar surfer.

“Attach the metal pieces together with bolts… Next comes the engine…”

Halfway down the instructions he felt calm enough to start thinking logically again. He wasn’t alone here; Sinbad, Kida and Milo were probably looking for him right now. They wouldn’t leave him here since he was one of the few on this planet who knew how to use the map and was familiar with space. He would just have to wait.

*

Sinbad ran into another dead end. How big was this labyrinth? He didn’t have time to run around like a headless chicken! He didn’t even know if he would find Jim. He could be in Kida’s part of the labyrinth, and that would make his running worth nothing.

“Just let him be okay,” Sinbad pleaded with one of the stone walls. He started hurrying down the path again, looking for any signs that would guide him to the right direction. There were scratches and cracks in the walls from time to time like someone had hit them with something heavy or tried to climb up, but he ran past them without a second thought. He only stopped when he felt something crack under his feet.

“What the hell?” The slimy, grime lightning shining on the labyrinth didn’t give him that much light, but when he moved his foot he could clearly make out a shape of a broken bone. He looked around him and was shocked to see more bones scattered around here and there. Two meters ahead of him was a bashed human skull. 

Sinbad reached for his sword, listening intensively if anyone – or anything – was near him. The silent eeriness and the endless corners and possibilities of something dashing towards him kept him on his toes as he moved painfully slowly forward, eyeing anything that looked suspicious. Hades hadn’t said anything about human-eating monsters being down here with him, but on the other hand, wasn’t that just like him? Sinbad snorted with annoyance. He reminded himself for a hundredth time to find a way to kill the god after all of this was over.

Something moved somewhere near him, and Sinbad pressed himself flat against a wall. It was cold against his skin, making a shiver ran through him. A drop of sweat rolled down his face as he heard slow, heavy steps thumping against the ground, followed with a metal clank. 

“Okay, Sinbad, take it easy,” he muttered to himself, “the thing hasn’t noticed you yet. Maybe you can stay in the shadows until it’s gone.” 

The steps came closer to him, and then they stopped. Sinbad waited and listened, holding his breath. It seemed to be just behind the wall he was pressed against. The steps continued away from him, and Sinbad exhaled. 

“I’m so not going to stay here and wait until it finds me.” Sinbad peeked around the corner he had been hiding behind, sprinting towards the opposite direction of where the creature – or whatever it was; Sinbad didn’t want to find out – had gone. He saw more broken skeletons lying on the ground, and some of their arms and legs were missing. Sinbad tried not to think about the horrible death that would probably await for him if he got caught. 

“I wonder if these people came here looking for something too.” 

Sinbad continued on his way, glancing behind his shoulder every once in a while just in case. He couldn’t be too careful. The last thing he needed was a monster slowing him down by chasing him or ripping him apart.

He turned left in the next intersection and saw light shining ahead of him. His steps fastened and soon he was running, desperate to get to the source of the light as fast as he could. The light was coming out of a round-shaped room, and a wave disappointment washed over Sinbad when he saw that the room was empty.

“Fuck!” Sinbad punched the nearest wall. “Where could Hades have hidden him?” 

He started walking back to the path, trying to think of all the possible places to hide a human. It was then that he heard muffled banging coming from the room he had been in, which made him do a 180 degree turn and rush back there. The banging stopped when he stepped in, but this time he would make sure he didn’t miss anything. 

“Hello? Jim?” he called, eyeing the room. A short yelp came from underneath him, and he dropped his gaze down with confusion. He hadn’t noticed it before, but there was a stony trapdoor on the floor, blending in with the rest of the tiles so good it was easy to not see it.

“Sinbad?” a muffled voice said back. Sinbad dropped down onto his knees to get closer to the voice, trying to pry the trapdoor open. It didn’t even budge. There was a small keyhole on it, and Sinbad cursed himself for not examining his surroundings on his way earlier when he had come here. The key could be anywhere.

“It’s me! Are you alright? Are you hurt?” Sinbad went through his pockets to find something to pick the lock with, and luckily he found two pieces of thick wire.

Jim went silent for a while, and horrible images of him passing out from the heat went through Sinbad’s head until he answered: “I’m fine.” Another moment of silence. “I never thought I would say this, but I’m glad to hear your voice.”

“Oh, yeah?” Sinbad inserted the pieces of wire into the lock, twisting and turning them to find the right angle. One of them got stuck, and when he tried to pull it out, it snapped in half. “Shit!”

“What now?” Jim sounded worried.

“I tried to pick the lock on this trapdoor but the other one of my wires broke. I have to get the key somewhere.” 

“There’s a trapdoor? I can’t see it from here. Where even am I?” 

Sinbad dug up the broken piece of wire from the lock, throwing it away. He would have to find better tools for lock-picking later. “You’re underground inside a labyrinth. And there’s also a human-eating monster walking around here somewhere.”

“Of course there is. Hades couldn’t pass up the chance to fuck-up people’s lives even more, could he?” 

“I suppose not,” Sinbad chuckled, but then his voice got serious. “Will you be okay? I don’t want to leave you alone here, but I have to go and search for the key.” 

“Don’t worry about me,” Jim reassured. “Just… try to hurry up, okay? It’s kind of warm in here.”

“I promise I’ll be back soon.”

Sinbad got up and glanced towards the trapdoor one more time before he started running again. He had no time to waste. He was relieved that Jim was still alive, but for how long? He had been down there for at least an hour, so the room being ‘warm’ was probably a big understatement. 

Sinbad’s eyes stayed on the ground the whole time as he ran. He stopped to check the skeletons on his way, and none of them seemed to have anything. He furrowed his brows. 

“If they don’t have any of their stuff with them anymore, something must have taken them. And that something could also have the key somewhere.” 

He took a moment to gather himself together, and then he followed the path which he remembered the creature had gone. 

*

Kida led the way with Milo trailing behind her, still carrying some of his stuff (he had had to leave almost everything back to the cave before entering the Underworld, but he had wanted to keep at least one bag). Neither was in the mood for talking, but it didn’t take long for Milo to open his mouth.

“I’m- I’m sorry for this.” His gaze dropped on the ground. 

Kida looked behind her with confusion written all over her face. “Sorry for what?”

“It’s my fault for telling you about how to get here. I thought I was helping you but instead I got all of us in danger and now Jim is – “ 

“Stop right there,” Kida turned around, holding her hand up. She put both of her hands on Milo’s shoulder, staring deep into his eyes. “If this is anyone’s fault, it’s mine. I was the one who decided to come here. I’m the one responsible, so don’t you dare to blame yourself, okay?” 

Milo sighed. “I just… I don’t want anyone to get hurt. We should hurry.” 

Kida nodded, starting to walk beside Milo this time. She looked at him from the corner of her eye, wondering how he could have remained so sweet and soft after all these years. He had lost his parents before he even knew them properly and was raised by his grandfather, who Kida had become very close friends with, too, before his death. They both had been a part of her family.

“I’m sorry for leaving you alone all those years ago,” Kida apologized. “I wanted to get away from the small town and the mundane life I lived. I always wondered after that how you would manage on your own without anyone being there to protect you, but seems like I was worried for nothing.”

“No, it’s… I… understand. I wish I had had the same courage as you,” Milo laughed, scratching his nose. “But I’m just a regular guy who only knows how to translate books and draw maps. Maybe adventures aren’t for me.” His shoulders slumped. 

“You’re wrong, Milo James Thatch!” Milo’s eyes widened at Kida’s sudden outburst. “I’ve always admired your knowledge. You’re strong, and kind, and smart. If you hadn’t been there for me when my father died… Who knows what I would have done.” Kida took Milo’s hand in hers, squeezing it encouragingly. “We’re going to get out of here alive. All of us.”

Milo smiled genuinely for the first time in a long time, and he nodded at his friend’s words. He understood why the pirates had chosen Kida as their captain. 

“Did you hear that?” Kida changed the subject. Milo tried to listen to his surroundings, but nothing drew his attention, so he shook his head. The female captain’s mouth turned slightly downwards as she concentrated. 

“What did you hear?” Milo asked.

“I’m not sure. It was like thudding or something. I don’t hear it anymore so maybe it was nothing.” She didn’t believe her own words, but she didn’t want Milo to feel uneasy by thinking about it too much. “Let’s just keep moving.”

Kida kept her eyes open for anything unusual. If there was something there with them, she could probably fight it, but protecting another person besides herself was a completely different thing. 

“Are you sure it was nothing? You seem, uh, tense. And your grip is, er, kind of… crushing…” 

Kida realized she had been squeezing Milo’s hand a little bit too hard, and she let it quickly go. “Oh no, I’m sorry!”

Milo brushed it off with a short laugh, but he looked somewhat worried.

They were both startled when the thudding started again, and this time Milo could hear it too. It was fast and sounded like a giant elephant running towards them. A low roar made them jump out of their skin, and Kida pushed Milo back down the path to one of the dead ends. The shadows would hopefully provide enough cover for them to go unnoticed by whatever the thing was. 

Kida stood in front of Milo, facing the opening and being ready to fight if the thing noticed them. The ground shook as the heavy steps came closer, slowing down but not stopping. Milo gulped, pushing his glasses up with a trembling hand. 

The creature walked past the opening. It was nothing like they had ever seen; half human and half bull with sharp, long horns. It carried a big metal axe which was stained with something that looked suspiciously like blood, and its back was hunched from the weight of it. It didn’t seem to notice them, and it continued on its way. 

“What was that?” Kida whispered, still not believing what she had seen. 

“I- I’ve seen mentions of it in books, but I never thought… God. It’s the Minotaur.” 

“The what?”

“The Minotaur! It’s rumored to have been locked up in a labyrinth for centuries, and supposedly people used to sacrifice humans to it every year… But I thought it was just a legend, and now it’s here, with us!” Milo whispered fiercely.

“You’re right about that.” Milo and Kida’s heads snapped towards Megara, who had appeared next to them.

“Meg!” Kida didn’t know if she was more angry or surprised, so she crossed her arms. “What are you doing here?”

Meg walked to the corner and checked if the Minotaur was still somewhere near them, and when it wasn’t, she spun around. “I came here to see how you were doing.”

Kida didn’t buy any of that. “Did you know what Hades was going to do to Jim? Did you _know_ about the map?” 

Meg sighed and rubbed her temples. “Yes and yes.” 

“So you lied!”

“Kinda comes with the job description. But I’m not here because of that. I want to help you,” Meg said, walking closer to Kida and Milo as she talked.

“Wait a minute. Do you really think we’ll trust you after this?” Milo stepped into the conversation. It could be another one of Hades’ traps. 

“Yes, I do! Listen: Hades never intended to let you get away from here, even if you managed to survive the Minotaur. He’s going to take your souls, and there’s nothing you can do about it. The Space boy is going to die because that’s how Hades planned it!”

“What?” Kida’s hands dropped to her sides, and she was staring at Meg, unable to form any words. She had known they couldn’t trust the god of the Underworld, but this was just horrible. How could she have been so stupid?

“I wouldn’t tell you this if I wasn’t going to help you. You have to trust me.” Meg looked at both of them with eyebrows drawn up as if she was desperate to get their trust. She took a step forward, almost reaching out for Kida’s hand but stopping mid-way like she had realized what she was doing and yanking her hand back to herself. 

Kida noticed it too, and she bit her lip, trying to decide whether it was wise to trust the woman or not. Milo made eye-contact with her and nodded. 

“Okay. What should we do?” the female captain finally said, and Meg broke into a relieved smile. 

“I’ll take you to the place where the map is hidden.” Meg touched their shoulders lightly and did the same thing as Hades had done, and in the blink of an eye they were standing in a dark chamber surrounded by rows and rows of old dirty clothes, belts, swords, glasses, gold, and other similar things that had most likely belonged to the people who had been sacrificed to the Minotaur. The strong and musty, metallic smell filled their nostrils, making them put their hands in front of their noses. 

“How can you move from one place to another like that?” Kida asked through his hand. “I thought you were a human.” 

The half of the sphere was laying on top of a pile of coins, and Kida grabbed it quickly as if it would disappear if they waited too long. She examined it shortly before putting it in her handbag and looking at Meg again. 

“I _am_ a human. Hades has given me some of his abilities to make it easier for me to run his errands,” Meg explained, adding: “Although I’m immortal until I’ve paid off my debts. If I… When I become free, I’ll turn into a mortal again.” Her eyes were full of pain and hatred when she mentioned Hades, but then they became sad, and she turned her back to them. “Your Space boy is still in danger. Give this to the other guy when you see him. He’ll be here soon.” 

Kida received a small silver key from her. She wanted to thank her, but instead a question came out of her mouth: “Are you coming back?”

“No. Otherwise Hades will realize what I’m doing. I’ve set the exit of the labyrinth so that it will take you back to the temple when you cross the border, but it will only last 10 seconds after it’s activated.” 

“But… Why are you doing this? Why are you helping us?” This time it was Milo who asked it. He had been quiet until now, letting his friend talk. He still didn’t understand why the woman would help them now. Wasn’t she on Hades’ side?

Meg thought about his question, and even she herself wasn’t sure of the answer. “I guess I just don’t want to earn my freedom by taking someone else’s away.” And with that she vanished into thin air.

*

Sinbad had no idea where the creature had gone, but when he saw an entrance to a chamber, he took his chances and ran straight inside it. He almost collided into two figures standing there, and he was dumbfounded to see they were Milo and Kida. 

“Whata..re you… doinhere?” he panted, having difficulties to form words so suddenly after an exhausting running trip. He leaned to his knees as he tried to steady his breathing back to normal. 

“Meg brought us here,” Milo said when Kida didn’t answer. “We got the map, and she told us to give this to you.” 

“Meg?” Sinbad straightened his back, taking the key from Milo and realizing it was for the trapdoor. “Why was she… here?” 

“She said she wanted to help us,” Milo explained. He glanced at Kida, wondering why she didn’t say anything, and she seemed to be deep in thought. Milo let her be because he didn’t want to disturb her; not when she was looking so serious.

“Really,” Sinbad stated, raising his eyebrow. “Tell me everything on the way back.” 

Sinbad’s lungs were burning from running so much, but he endured it. Milo’s running pace was slightly better than Sinbad had even dared to hope, which he was silently glad for, and Kida ran behind them, still not saying a word. It made Sinbad wonder what had happened. Milo had explained everything as best as he could, and somehow Meg being so helpful all of a sudden after lying to them didn’t make any sense to him. They would have to wait and see if Meg had told the truth this time either. 

They arrived to the room Jim was in, and Sinbad hurried to the trapdoor. 

“Hey, I came back with the key. Kida and Milo are here too, and they have the map!” Sinbad told Jim through the trapdoor, but he got no answer. His hands were shaking as he tried to insert the key to the hole, taking away important seconds from him. 

He finally got the trapdoor open, and a hot flame of air hit his face, making everyone take a step back. Jim was lying on his stomach on the floor, and even with a dim light source Sinbad could see that his skin was all red and he wasn’t breathing.

Sinbad jumped down to the room and crouched beside Jim. He rolled him onto his side, touching his burning face and shaking him slightly. “Jim, wake up. Come on, didn’t you say you’d be alright? First you make me run my ass off trying to find you and then the key, and now you don’t even…” 

Silence. 

“Jim?” 

Nothing. 

Sinbad swallowed the lump in his throat, lifting Jim off the floor and getting him up back to the surface. Kida’s hand flew onto her mouth, and she quickly dug a bottle of from Milo’s bag. 

“Put him on the floor,” she ordered, and Sinbad was too defeated to say anything back to her. She ripped a piece of fabric from her tunic, pouring water on it and wiping Jim’s face to cool it down. Next she poured a small portion of water into Jim’s mouth. 

Jim started coughing all of a sudden, making Sinbad’s eyes widen in surprise. He held Jim’s head up to make it easier for him to swallow the water. Jim was still unconscious, but at least he was breathing now.

“We have to get help,” Sinbad said, eyes full of determination. He lifted Jim up again, carrying him on his arms as he started jogging back to the exit with Kida and Milo following him. He wasn’t sure if he would remember the path since he had got lost so many times, but luckily the fate was on his side this time, and they made it to the exit. It had a thin purple fog around it, and apparently Meg had told the truth because they could see the exit of the temple on the other side of it. 

Sinbad ran through it, activating the transportation as he crossed the border. He was followed by Milo, who couldn’t help but smile as they made it out of the Underworld. He looked around him for Kida to give her a hug, but she was nowhere to be seen.

“Kida?” Milo’s eyes turned back to the exit, and he saw Kida standing still on the other side, looking at him with big, sad eyes. “Kida, what are you doing?”

“I’m sorry, Milo.” 

The purple fog faded and the exit closed, leaving Kida in the labyrinth. 

Milo’s confusion turned into shock, but he didn’t have time to dwell on it because the next thing he heard was the sounds of people drawing their swords and telling them to ‘give up the map and we won’t hurt you’ behind him.

“We know what you were looking for out there,” one of them said, grinning madly. “Seems like it was worth the wait. Where’s the map?” 

Sinbad cursed silently. He couldn’t even fight with Jim in this condition. They would just have to give up the map and steal it back later. “Okay, okay, we’ll give what you want. Just let us go. My… friend is in a serious condition and needs a doctor. Milo?” He called behind his shoulder.

Milo walked next to him, a little bit paler than before. “Kida decided to stay in the labyrinth. She has the map.” 

“ _What_?” Sinbad whispered, looking around him as if to make sure Milo wasn’t lying. They were so fucked.

“What’s takin’ so long? Do I have to do everything myself?” a big man with mechanical body parts asked with irritated voice and pushed his way through the people to the front. He was a cyborg. Realization struck Sinbad. _The_ cyborg.

“Apologies, Captain,” the woman who had spoken to them earlier said to the cyborg. Then she turned her sharp eyes back to Sinbad and Milo. “The map. Now.” 

“We don’t have it,” Sinbad grunted. 

“Then we’ll slice your throats open!”

“Wait!” the cyborg raised his hand, stopping the woman. He zoomed closer in to the man in Sinbad’s arms with his mechanical eye, trying to remember where he had seen him before. His mouth dropped open. “Jimbo?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all, I’d like to thank everyone for their support and the amazing comments! They always make my day and give me motivation to keep writing this fic. 
> 
> Secondly, this chapter took a looooong time to write, and I was mentally patting myself on the shoulder after finishing it. It’s not quite what I had in mind when I started to write it, but the characters took a life of their own. I made it quite obvious who the cyborg at the end is, and I’m really looking forward to writing scenes between him and Jim in the following chapters (on the contrary, his accent has already given me nightmares). It’s almost midnight in Finland when I’m publishing this and I’m dead tired, so please forgive me for all the errors and grammatical mistakes in the story.


	8. Still a pirate

Jim woke up to a throbbing headache. A sharp, electric-like shock went through his skull as he tried to open his eyes, making him groan and slam a hand on his face to keep the brightness away. His body sank deeper into the soft mattress, and he was ready to lie there for a week. Or maybe a year. Hell, he could lie there forever if it meant not having to open his eyes ever again.

Footsteps, which sounded like someone playing a trumpet with a loudspeaker attached to it next to his ears, approached him, and someone with an awful familiar voice, whose owner Jim couldn’t recall, said ‘here, drink this’ and put a cup against his mouth. The liquid was thick and so sticky it stuck to his dry throat, and he was sure he would choke until the stranger gave him another cup filled with water.

“Thanks,” Jim rasped, still not opening his eyes. The pain started fading, and finally he was able to crack his eyes open. First everything around him was blurry, like looking his surroundings through a glass; he could see colors, but he couldn’t form the shapes they belonged to. He had to focus hard to get his vision back, which was enough to make him have a coughing fit and taste blood in his mouth.

“Don’t try too hard, my boy, you’ve been out of it for two days,” John Silver laughed, and Jim was so shocked to see him again he couldn’t say a word. Silver was standing his back towards him, doing something on the table, and when he turned around, he was holding a tray with a bowl of soup, a piece of bread and a cup of water on it. Jim’s stomach growled as the tray was placed on his lap, but he couldn’t take his eyes off of Silver.

“Where’s Sinbad?” was the first question that came out of his mouth. He remembered the unbearable heat; the sweating, the pain, the hopelessness; but after that there was just blankness, and then he woke up here and had apparently been unconscious for two days. His stomach dropped when a thought occurred to him: what if Sinbad had taken the map and left without him? 

Silver watched Jim’s face go pale, and the corners of his mouth turned up into a reassuring smile as he said: “Oh, that beardy fella? I sent him back to his crew this morning. Had been sittin’ next to your bed since you came here, I tell you! I thought he could use a break, so I said ‘don’t you worry about Jimbo here, this old Cap’n will take care of him ‘til you come back!’. Said he wouldn’t be gone for long; just check that his crew was okay.”

Jim sighed in relief and grabbed the spoon on the tray, starting to stuff his mouth with the soup. It was probably cooked by Silver: it looked like something that came out of the sewers, but once you got past the looks it wasn’t half bad, and truth to be told, Jim had missed his cooking.

Silver sat on the nearest stool, starting to polish his cyborg arm with a handkerchief. “So, a military boy, eh?” 

Jim slowed down his eating. “How did you know?”

“You’ve been all over the newspapers! And boy, was I proud when I saw a photo of you in that white uniform! I knew you’d become something great.”

A smile tugged at Jim’s lips, and he had to blink a couple times to stop tears welling up in his eyes. “Yeah, well. It was nice to see my mom smile genuinely for the first time since forever when I showed up at home in my uniform.” He glanced around the cabin. It was much different from Sinbad’s: Sinbad’s cabin was full of small accessories and stolen things from all over the world, while Silver liked much more simple yet antique stuff. “And you’re still a pirate?”

Silver chortled, maybe a little bit embarrassed. “I tried to live like an honest man would, but let’s just say t’was not for me. Freedom’s what I can’t live without, you see. But how come you’re working with a pirate? The last I heard this Sinbad lad was quite a big deal.”

“It’s not that simple.” He tried to come up with a nice way to say he was kidnapped, but there really wasn’t any, so he continued: “I was forced to stay with his crew. But right now it’s – “

“You mean he KIDNAPPED you?”

“Well, yes – “

“That bloody bastard, I ain’t gonna let him near you or me ship anymore!“

“Listen – “

“And here I was, thinkin’ you two were close when he carried you out of that temple and was ready to give the sphere to save yer life!” 

“He did what?” Jim was dumbfounded. So Sinbad had actually saved him. And he had been ready to give up the map for him? “Did you take the sphere?” 

Silver had stood up with a furious face, but after glancing at Jim again his features softened. “No, of course not. Not after I realized t’was you. And he didn’t have the map anyway.”

Jim decided he would have to have a serious talk with Sinbad after he came back. He wanted to know what exactly had happened and why he hadn’t got the map. A feeling of guilt washed over him because he hadn’t thought about Kida and Milo until now. “Were there two other people with him? A woman with white hair and blue tattoos and a man with round eyeglasses?”

The old pirate had calmed down at this point, and he had sat back on the stool. “Now that you ask, there was a man with him. He was very upset about something, and as soon as we arrived to me ship he told he was goin’ to go to Thebes. Don’t know what for, though. Gave him some food and then he left.” 

What the hell had happened down in the Underworld?

“How did you know about us trying to get the map anyway? Did you follow us?” 

There was a strong knock on the door, saving Silver from embarrassing himself by answering to the question. After getting a permission to enter, a woman, who was a cross between a lion and a human, came in, and when her eyes met with Jim’s, an unpleasant shiver ran through him. The eyes were cold and harsh.

“Ah, Vitani. What is it?” Silver asked.

“The pirate is back, Captain,” the lioness informed. Jim guessed he meant Sinbad, so he quickly pushed the tray away and jumped off the bed. He hardly noticed that his sweaty uniform had been changed to a new pair of clothes, consisting of brown pants and a natural white cotton shirt, because he was in a hurry to get to the deck before John Silver could carry out his threat of not letting Sinbad near him again. He pushed past the lioness and was out of the door before either of them could stop him.

Sinbad was talking to one of Silver’s crewmates, but when he saw Jim running out of the captain’s cabin, he stopped talking in mid-sentence with his mouth wide open. Jim couldn’t stop a grin forming on his face as he walked in front of Sinbad and they both stood there, staring at each other.

“I thought I’d never see that smug grin again,” Sinbad breathed and dropped the bag in his hand to pull Jim into a tight hug. Jim was taken aback by the sudden closeness, but after recovering from the shock he wrapped his arms around the other man too, closing his eyes. Sinbad smelled like the sea; salty water with a hint of waves; and musky cologne that was probably stolen from some poor salesman. 

“Aren’t you a sight for sore eyes,” Silver stated with a raised eyebrow, making Sinbad and Jim separate from each other like they had been caught doing something they weren’t supposed to. “Relax, Jimbo. I ain’t gonna do anything to him,” he continued, and the stubborn look on Jim’s face faded. 

“Thank you for taking care of him, Captain Silver,” said Sinbad. “I’ll continue from now on.” They exchanged a look, and Silver nodded after a while. 

“You should stay for a day or two. Jim’s in no condition to travel back to the harbor yet,” the old pirate said.

Jim was about to argue that he felt perfectly fine, but a rush of nausea made him shut his mouth. Sinbad noticed the wobble in his step and hurried to support him, grabbing his arm and wrapping a hand around his back. He walked him back to the cabin with Silver’s worrying look following them, sat him down on the bed and filled a cup with water. Jim glugged it down, feeling slightly better.

“Tell me what happened in the Underworld.”

Sinbad sat next to Jim, leaning against his knees. He started explaining the events as best as he could, and when he got to the part where Kida had stayed behind, Jim gritted his teeth.

“Hades tricked us! How are we even supposed to go back to save Kida? Milo is gone to God knows where, the path to the altar has been destroyed and I can’t even be up for more than 5 minutes because otherwise I’ll throw up or faint! This is just great.”

The captain listened to Jim’s ranting, wanting to comfort him somehow but ending up only patting his leg. “Milo told me he’s going to get help from Hercules.”

“How is a hero, who probably is an imposter anyway, going to help us? Hades is a god.”

“I don’t know,” Sinbad admitted. “And why are you getting so worked up over this? It’s not like it’s your loss if we don’t get the map.”

Jim didn’t know the answer to Sinbad’s question. Why was he indeed getting so upset about all of this? If the map was unreachable, Sinbad would probably let him go on his own way and not bother him anymore.

“It doesn’t matter,” he said. An uncomfortable silence landed between them until Jim finally asked the question that had been bothering him (or ‘interesting’ him as he told himself) since they had left the harbor: “Did you meet up with Marina the other day?” 

Sinbad’s eyes widened. “And how exactly – ? No, wait. It was Rat, wasn’t it?”

Jim shrugged his shoulders, making the captain take a deep breath.

“Yes, I did meet up with her. I saw her ship in the harbor and figured she had come to a business meeting here. But she’s just a friend.”

“I heard you were in love with her,” Jim turned his eyes to the floor.

Sinbad sighed. “What do you want me to say?”

A lump in Jim’s throat made it hard for him to swallow. He clenched his fists around the blanket under him so hard his knuckles were white, and he felt incredibly stupid for asking that question. “I just wanted to know.”

“Why, are you jealous?” Sinbad laughed.

“Why would I be jealous?” Jim scoffed.

“Don’t answer a question with a question.” 

“Already did.”

The conversation was going nowhere, so Sinbad threw his arms up and flopped down on the bed on his back. “Alright then. What are we going to do about John Silver and his crew? If we ever get the map back, we’re not going to give it to them. And there’s already my crew and Kida’s crew sharing the treasure. We could be left with nothing if another pirate crew joins us. And three captains trying to make decisions together? It’s not going to be pretty.”

Jim smiled at the mental image despite the aching in his heart, and he had to agree with him. He followed Sinbad’s example and flopped down next to him, turning to his side to look at him. “If the map leads us to a similar planet or place as the previous one, there will be enough for all of us, believe me. Who knows: maybe this map also belonged to Captain Flint? A wise man would separate the treasure to at least two different places so that if the first one is found, the second will still remain a secret.”

“I have never heard a rumor about Captain Flint having two different maps, but you could be right,” Sinbad said. “Hey, are you alright?” 

Jim’s lids drooped as he tried to stay awake. “All this serious talk is making me tired.”

“You should rest then.” Sinbad got up, helping Jim get under the blanket and tucking him in. He was about to leave when he felt a hand grab his arm and heard Jim mumble ‘stay’, so he sat back on the edge of the bed, making it squeak. “Please don’t tell me you want me to sing you to sleep.”

The man laughed shortly. “I’d rather not hear you sing.”

Sinbad smiled and watched him fall asleep, and when he was sure he wasn’t awake anymore, he brushed the strands of hair off the man’s forehead, letting his hand linger there for a while. His smile faltered as the realization of what he was doing, and how he liked the soft structure of Jim’s hair, struck him, and he bit the inside of his lip.

*

The streets were busy with people running off to work or trying to sell newspapers and fruits or just walking around with important look on their faces as Milo tried to ask instructions to Hercules’ palace. Most blatantly ignored him when they realized he wasn’t going to buy anything, and the rest laughed him off as if he had been stupid.

Milo pushed his glasses up angrily as an elder woman almost shoved him to the ground on her way, but when he had gathered up enough courage to snap at her, she had disappeared into the crowd. He sighed and stopped to cool himself under the shade of a high building and drink some water. His back was wet from the heat and he had to push up his glasses every two minutes because the sweat kept sliding them down his nose. 

It had taken him two days to get to Thebes by hitching a ride on donkey-drawn carts and on foot. There were bags under his eyes and many times he had thought of giving up, but just the thought of Kida having to stay in the Underworld forever had made him continue his journey. And when he had finally arrived in Thebes and had thought of finally getting some help, no one had even spared a second glance at him when he had tried to ask about Hercules’ whereabouts. Only the Hercules merchandise he saw on sale in the stalls convinced him that he was not just a legend.

“You look lost,” someone with an overly cheerful voice said from the alley behind him, startling him and making him drop the water bottle. It never hit the ground, however, because it had stopped falling and was now floating in air. “Whoops, gotta be more careful with that! It might have been my fault for scaring you though. Sorry, pal! Here, why don’t I make it up for ya by giving you a free lemonade?” 

A glass filled with lemonade and decorated with a straw and a green cocktail umbrella appeared in Milo’s hand, and he turned around dumbfounded. His eyes met with a person who was very blue, very cheerful and very… not human.

“Uh, w-who – ?” 

“I’m so glad you asked!” Milo was pulled into the alley, and a top hat appeared on the blue man’s head. He took the hat off dramatically, and a big puff of confetti flew out of it, raining on both of them. “I’m no one but the Genie himself – Genie of the Lamp! No wait, forget the lamp part! I’m my own master nowadays! Anyway, I was on my way to Athens when I noticed a person looking very lost – which was you! – and I though I might be of help. And who might you be and where might you be going, my friend? I’m only a tourist myself, but if I can help, I will!” 

“A – a genie?” Milo pushed his glasses up again nervously. “My name is, uh, Milo – “ Genie shook his hand, _hard_ , “ – T-thatch. Is there any way you could bring back my friend from the Underworld?” 

Genie’s face fell, and he shook his head. “Sorry, pal, but I can’t bring back the dead.”

“She’s not dead, she’s trapped!” 

The blue man furrowed his brows, pulled an ancient-looking book out of thin air and put glasses on to read something. “I still can’t help you. I’m truly sorry. This lady we’re talking about – she’s gotten involved with Hades? We genies aren’t allowed to intervene in the gods’ business. There are limits to our powers too. Anything else?” Genie offered him a sad smile, closing the book. 

“Oh, okay… Then I guess Hercules is my only hope,” Milo sighed and took his glasses off to rub his temples.

“Hercules? The wonderboy who has beaten many monsters and is the top hero of this country? Why didn’t you say so! I can arrange you to his place immediately!” Genie leaned closer, changing his voice to a whisper: “He’s quite a handsome fellow, just so you know!”

Milo felt his cheeks burning, and he wasn’t sure if it was from the embarrassment or from the heat. “Um, thank you, but – “

Genie took his hand, pulling him through time and space and right back to the Earth into the garden of a palace surrounded by tall, sturdy wall. Milo’s feet wobbled, and he had to sit down on the edge of a fountain. 

“Here we are! It’s really hard to pass through the gates of the wall and there are guards securing it, so I thought it would be the best if I brought you inside already. Now you can just walk into the palace and impress the hero with your good looks! I can also give advice on some pick up lines if you want to,” Genie blabbered, flying around the fountain until he stopped in front of Milo. “Although, first we must do something to your appearance!”

The blue man snapped his fingers, and Milo’s worn-out, sweaty tank top and muddy trousers were changed into new ones, a cloud of sweet-smelling cologne was sprayed on him, his hair was stylized and even his glasses were cleaned up.

“Now we’re talking! You’re all set.”

“I’m flattered by your help, but I’m only doing this to save my friend,” Milo tried to explain, but Genie just smiled.

“Of course. But who says you couldn’t have some romance to its side?” 

It was no use of trying to convince the genie otherwise, so Milo just nodded. “Thanks for everything. I couldn’t have found here without you.”

“I’m always glad to be of help! I have to go back to Agrabah tomorrow – wouldn’t miss my friend Al’s birthday party for the world! – but I’m sure we’ll meet again, Milo. Maybe when I do my third round the world trip,” Genie said, wiping a tear from the corner of his eye. “I hope you’ll be able to save your friend!”

“Me too, Genie. Me too,” Milo answered and watched as the man waved his goodbyes and flew into the sky like a blue rocket. Their meeting had been very short, but Milo was missing the genie already. He had been very lucky to meet him, though. His colleagues back in his home city wouldn’t believe what he had seen! 

“Okay, time to meet the hero himself, Milo Thatch,” he said to himself, turning to look at the white palace that made him feel like an ant in comparison. He should probably use the front door and try to look like he belonged there. He could almost feel the white statue of a small and round satyr in the middle of the fountain mocking his thoughts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like I'm always starting my A/N with an apology for not updating in a long time... And this time is not going to be any different, haha. I've been really busy with exams and school stuff and life in general, so my time for writing has been quite limited. 
> 
> On the other hand, this fic has gotten a lot of new readers, so thanks for that! I love reading your comments, and even just knowing you're there makes me so, so happy. I might try to finish this fic during my summer vacation (which will start in June and last until the beginning of August), but we'll see. 
> 
> Sometimes I wonder if there are too many characters in this fic, but... I just love them all, you know. ;_; Please bear with me. I'll see you in the next chapter!


	9. A hero to the rescue

Milo walked up the marble stairs and through the row of Corinthian styled columns to the front door, and he sighed in relief when there was no one guarding it. Everyone counted on the tall walls and the guards patrolling outside keeping the unwanted people away, and well, according to the rumors he had heard, Hercules was strong enough to defend himself if needed. They would probably throw the intruder into jail if they caught him, though, but Milo had no time to think about it now. 

His legs were shaking as he took the last few steps.

A cool breeze of air hit Milo’s face as he entered the palace, and the first thing he noticed was how beautiful the building was inside (he was glad he had remembered to take his sketchbook with him). The floors and walls were covered with colorful mosaic, and two rows of columns crossed the hall, holding the roof. He also became aware of the marble statues of heroes from different eras as he almost bumped into one of them while gaping at his surroundings, which made him smile in excitement. 

“Ahem.” 

Milo did a pirouette, looking like a deer caught in the headlights. He looked around, seeing no-one until he finally dropped his eyes to the ground. It was the same satyr whose statue he had seen in the garden, and he had crossed his arms and was tapping the floor with one of his feet, staring at Milo with furrowed brows. 

“What’s your business here?” the satyr demanded.

“Me?” Milo pointed at himself, laughing nervously and trying to come up with a perfect excuse for being in the palace. He should have thought about this earlier. 

“Who else is there?”

“Don’t you remember me? I’m…” Milo pushed up his glasses with a trembling, sweaty hand, “…I’m the reporter who was supposed to have an interview with Hercules today! I called you a few weeks earlier.”

The satyr’s eyes widened and he took a calendar in his hand, eyeing it through. “I haven’t written down any interviews for today’s schedule, Mister…?”

“M-Miles… Thacker,” Milo said and wanted to punch himself for not thinking of a better cover name.

“Right. Mr. Thacker. I’ll make a quick trip to my office. You can wait here, I’ll be right back,” the satyr said, squinted his eyes slightly and then turned around, walking into one of the corridors. 

As soon as the satyr had turned his back on him, he darted into the corridor in the opposite direction. There was no way he would just wait in the hall and let the satyr realize his true identity and call the guards on him. He had to find Hercules quickly and convince him to come with him, but now that he thought about it… How would he do that? He only had the money which his university had lend him for his research, and Hercules wasn’t probably even in the need of money since he owned this palace. And he most likely had hundreds of girls and boys lining up to date him, so offering him his body wasn’t an option either (what on _Earth_ was he thinking? He wouldn’t sell his body even if it was the last option!).

Milo slowed down his pace to look less suspicious when he had run far enough, and on his way he nodded and smiled at three servants with matching orange tunics who were carrying food trays. The servants nodded back but stopped to stare at him after he had passed them, and Milo could still feel their eyes on him as he disappeared around a corner. 

“So far no one has tried to capture me, so I guess I’m doing good. I just have to look like I belong here and know what I’m doing,” he muttered to keep himself distracted from thinking about having to rot in a jail with rats or being sent to Rome to fight in the arena if he got caught.

He heard fast footsteps and yelling coming from the way he had come, and he panicked. He jumped through one of the doorways covered with red curtains and pressed himself flat against the wall, squeezing his eyes shut and hoping they wouldn’t come into the room. He wouldn’t have a chance against gladiators and lions. 

He listened as the footsteps moved further away, and then he let out a breath he hadn’t known he had been holding. He wasn’t sure whether the people had been looking for him or doing something else, but he wouldn’t take any chances.

Milo opened his eyes and was about to peek behind the curtains if the coast was clear, but he froze in place when his eyes were met with a pair of blue ones staring at him from the steamy bath in the center of the room. He swallowed when his gaze dropped and he noticed that the man in front of him was naked; his whole body red from the hot water and blushing; and that the man was no one but Hercules himself. He looked much better in real life than the statues and the merchandise gave away.

“Um, hi,” Milo coughed. He turned quickly to find some clothing to throw to Hercules so he could cover himself up, and he found a white towel resting on a stone bench (Hercules looked even gladder than him).

“T-thank you,” Hercules said after he had wrapped the towel around his waist, not meeting Milo’s eyes. He covered his chest with his arms as he got out of the bath, and Milo stared at the wall when Hercules put on some clothes.

“I-I’m sorry for rushing in here like that, while you were, uh, you know,” Milo explained to the wall, cheeks hot from embarrassment.

“No, no, it’s okay! Although I have to say that I was quite surprised,” said Hercules and laughed, rubbing the back of his neck. “Oh, and I’m, uh, Hercules. Nice to meet you.”

“I know. I mean – “ Milo blurted, “ – I’m Milo. Nice to meet you too. I was just passing through, so I guess I’m just going to go now.” He took a couple of steps towards the doorway, but then he remembered the reason he had come here.

“Forget something?” Hercules asked when Milo took the steps back.

“I was actually going to ask for a favor,” Milo said, looking at the ground. He waited for Hercules to punch him or throw him into the water, but when nothing happened, he raised his eyes, and the man was watching him with curiosity and kindness in his eyes. He was totally different from what Milo had imagined. He had heard about heroes who were full of themselves and glared at everyone who dared to look them in the eye even for a split second, but Hercules was… different.

“What is it?” Hercules smiled. 

“My friend Kida is in danger,” Milo started. He explained everything about the Underworld and Hades and the map and how Kida had stayed behind to help Megara, and Hercules’ expression turned more and more serious as the story went on.

“Hades… He’s always causing trouble! I’ve had to defend the city from his monsters so many times I’ve lost count. And now you’re telling me he’s captured innocent people? This can’t go on,” Hercules said, clenching his fists.

Milo’s eyes brightened at Hercules’ words. “Will you help me?”

Hercules looked at him, but then he turned his head away and his shoulders slumped. “I… I wish I could. But I can’t.” He sat on the bench, resting his hands on his knees.

“What? Why?” Milo insisted, sitting next to him. “I… I-I know it’s a big favor to ask, and I’m a stranger and all, but you’re my only hope.”

The steamy air made Milo’s glasses constantly fog up, and he had to take them off again to rub them clean with his shirt. He tried really hard not to let the frustration get to him, and he blinked a few times to make the tears go away. If Hercules declined, he would have to start all over again with nothing. He would have to go trough ancient books and try to find some kind of way to save Kida, but it would take weeks – maybe months – to find something to start with. And who knows what Hades would do to Kida during that time.

The hero sitting next to him ran a hand through his auburn hair, taking a deep breath. “You seem like a guy I can trust. To be honest, I’ve lost some of my powers, and I don’t know how to get them back.” He paused. “If the word got out about me losing my powers, every monster would take the opportunity to attack Thebes. That’s why Phil – my coach, mentor and manager – has tried to keep me away from the public ever since he noticed it. He lets the other heroes take care of the monsters and disasters, and I only get to do short fan meetings. I will never be a true hero… I’m sorry.”

Milo listened to Hercules’ speech, and his eyes widened. He had had no idea about Hercules losing his powers. The person called Phil had managed to keep it surprisingly well-hidden from the publicity. But that’s why he needed Hercules even more.

“You… You’re the best hero in the world. I’ve read all about your stories in books and newspapers, and that’s the reason I came to you for help. And now I know I can help you too. I think all you have to do to get your powers back is to actually use them again. You just need some courage to do so!” Milo smiled and put his hand on Hercules’ muscular arm. 

Hercules was quiet for a while until he nodded slowly and seemed to decide something in his mind right there and then. “You’re right. I’ve been too afraid to even try them after I lost one of the battles.” He got up from the bench, standing up more straight than before. “Where did you say this ship of your friends was again? I’m going to get Phil to reschedule this day.” 

*

“So you actually found the hidden island? Tell me more about it,” Sinbad said with a half-empty rum bottle in his hand, leaning against the railing. 

“Well, if ya insist,” John Silver answered with a humble tone, but the small smile on his face told Sinbad he was actually very pleased to tell more about his adventures to someone who was interested. 

Sinbad had had a lot of time to get to know him while Jim was sleeping, and the captain had turned out to be quite a nice man. Sinbad was still careful with his words around him, though, but he had a feeling they would get along just fine (or at least he would try to since Jim liked the captain so much).

Sinister dark clouds had started gathering in the sky a while ago, blocking the sunrays from reaching the earth, and the wind blew harder, making Sinbad hold his hat tightly. It was almost like the sea and the sky were getting nervous too, although he didn’t know the reason.

“Are you boring Sinbad with your stories again?” Jim interrupted, making Silver guffaw at his cheekiness.

“Don’t be so harsh on yer ol’ man! I was just ‘bout to get to the part where I meet this nosy little brat called Jimbo,” Silver said, and Jim rolled his eyes. 

“Any news about Milo?” asked Jim as he snatched the rum bottle from Sinbad and took a few sips from it. He certainly looked much better now after napping for three hours; his steps weren’t wobbly anymore and his blue eyes were reflecting the usual adventurousness bubbling inside him.

“Not yet. I haven’t heard a word from him since he left. Maybe he collapsed on some side of the road somewhere on the way to Thebes,” Sinbad suggested and was about to say something else too, but something got his attention. “What is that?” 

Everyone watched as a white, winged horse with blue mane and tail spun in the air, flying against the wind, and landed gracefully on the deck of Silver’s ship, carrying two men and one angry-looking satyr on its back. Milo hopped off and was followed by the other two, who were arguing about something.

“Listen to me, kid! I have two words for you: This! Is! Outrageous!” the satyr roared, and he looked like he would explode if someone poked him with a needle. “Rule number 22: heroes don’t help thieves, which also includes pirates! Have you already forgotten what I taught you?” 

“Give it a rest, Phil,” Hercules huffed. “Besides, Milo is the one who asked for help, and he’s not a pirate!”

“That’s not the point, kid!”

“My heart is telling me it’s the right thing to do!”

“You..!” Phil’s face reddened, but then he sighed. “I’m telling you: this is a bad, bad idea.”

“I’ve already made up my mind. Hades will know about me sooner or later, and I’d rather it be sooner. I’m tired of hiding,” Hercules said and turned towards the pirates. 

Silver was the first one to react, and he took his hat off, bowing slightly with a sly grin. “Ain’t this an honour to have a hero on me ship! You must be Hercules. An’ comin’ here like a knight on a white horse!”

“H-hello,” Hercules greeted, not really knowing how to react. “Yes, uh, that’s me. And these are Phil and Pegasus.”

“I already explained the situation to him, and he promised to get Kida and the map back,” Milo told them, and Hercules confirmed it with a nod. 

“I sent Hades a fire message. He’s going to meet me here,” Hercules said.

“That’s great, but,” Sinbad, who had been following their conversation with raised eyebrows, started, stepping forward, “how exactly are you going to get him to give us what we want? He’s not the type to discuss the matter peacefully over a cup of tea, you know. If he even shows up.”

Hercules tensed, and he let out a slightly nervous chuckle. “Believe me, he will come. I made him an offer he wouldn’t refuse.” 

“An offer? Whaddya mean?” Phil demanded, but his question was ignored by Hercules turning his back on him and asking Silver to take him somewhere where he could get prepared for facing Hades. Silver showed him the way to his cabin, and when Phil tried to follow them, Hercules, sht the wooden door straight in his face. The satyr just gaped at the closed door like he couldn’t believe Hercules’ behavior, and then he stomped away almost knocking one of Silver’s men on the ground on his way.

At first Jim had snorted at the satyr’s almost comical look, but seeing him so upset made him feel kind of bad about laughing at him. He tugged the hem of Sinbad’s shirt and nodded away from the others, getting him to follow him so they could talk in private.

“What do you make out of all this?” Jim asked with a lowered tone.

Sinbad shrugged, turning his head to look at the door of Silver’s cabin. “To be honest? I don’t know what kind of an offer he made to Hades, but he’s our only chance of getting the map back, and we’re running out of time here.”

“Running out of time?”

“Yeah. When I went back to the harbor to see if my crew was okay, they told me a word about military ships coming here had gotten out, and they didn’t seem to be that far away anymore. The oncoming storm will probably slow them down a bit, but we can’t count on that,” Sinbad sighed.

Jim’s heart skipped a beat at the thought of the military ships coming to rescue him, but whether it was from happiness or from being disappointed, he wasn’t sure.

“I thought you’d be happier after I told you that,” Sinbad said and punched Jim gently on his shoulder.

“I am,” said Jim and massaged the spot Sinbad had punched. “Eric is probably with them.”

Sinbad’s grin faltered, but he quickly recovered his smile to show he was definitely not affected by his words. “Oh, you mean the guy with a killer smile and blue eyes? I remember him. What about him? I thought you two weren’t together.”

Jim snickered. “Now who’s jealous?”

“I’m not –!” Sinbad started but realized he had already lost this battle. “Fine, you got me there. I admit it: I am jealous of him.”

Jim’s mind went completely blank. He had only been joking, but now that Sinbad had actually admitted it, he didn’t know what to say. He wasn’t even sure where he stood with him, but this had to mean something, right? The more he thought about it, the faster his heart beat, and the tingling feeling he always felt in the bottom of his stomach while talking to Sinbad started spreading to his whole body. 

They stared into each other’s eyes, and before Jim knew what was happening Sinbad lowered his head and kissed him. And for five seconds it was just them in the world; Sinbad’s soft lips on Jim’s, and his rough hands finding their way around his body, pulling him closer. A shiver ran through Jim as he noticed he wasn’t the only one whose heart was drumming crazily.

It was over as fast as it had started, but it left both of them breathless and their lips burning with something that had always been there between them. No one seemed to have noticed their shared moment, but Sinbad’s eyes widened when the euphoria faded and the realization of what he had just done struck him.

“I have to go,” Sinbad muttered, stumbling away from Jim and pushing past Silver’s crewmen to get to the land. Jim was left there standing, not really believing either what had happened. The kiss had been nice, _really_ nice for that matter, but he didn’t understand why Sinbad had panicked like that after it.

“Fuck.” Jim covered his lips with his hand. Things had just gotten way too complicated.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guys, guys!! I’m finally back after a two-month (unplanned) hiatus, which I’m really sorry for. I actually wrote half of this chapter at the beginning of June, but I’ve been so exhausted after work that I just didn’t have the energy to finish it until now. There goes my plan on finishing this fic during the summer… Never trust a writer to meet their deadline. Anyway, there’s finally some development between Jim and Sinbad, so I hope it was worth the wait. I’ll seriously try harder to make the time between the updates shorter, but I can’t promise anything. 
> 
> I’d like to say thanks to the readers who have been here with me since the beginning of this fic (has it already been 8 months?), and I’d also like to welcome the new readers who have somehow discovered it and decided to read it! Your comments and support always make my day and motivate me to continue writing.


	10. The fight

First droplets of rain started falling from the sky as everyone waited for Hades to show up. Hercules had changed his ordinary clothes into a warrior armor gear, and he stood with crossed arms on the deck, facing the sea. He had the look of determination on his face, but his toes were wiggling restlessly in his sandals. Milo was telling a story about one of his professors in his university to him, gesturing with his hands along the story and trying to lighten up the mood. 

Phil, on the other hand, looked nervous for the both of them: he was pacing back and forth on the ship and muttering to himself, almost angering Vitani who was getting tired of the restless atmosphere. She earned a warning look from Silver, though, so she took out her frustration on sharpening her claws. 

Jim was growing annoyed too. First Sinbad had left, again, and now Hades was making them wait for an unnecessarily long time. To be honest, he wouldn’t mind kicking the ass of the Lord of the Death himself; not after what he had done to him; but he figured letting an actual hero to do the job was probably for the best. 

“All this trouble for a stupid map,” he groaned and kicked a bucket that someone had left on the deck.

A thunder-like noise struck the sky and made a big crack appear in the air, making everyone jump out of their skins. Out of the crack stepped Hades, who was followed by Kida and Meg with shackles around their wrists linked to the chains the god was holding. They both looked fine, but Kida was grinding her teeth and staring at Hades with furious eyes. Meg didn’t meet anyone’s gaze, and her head was hanging low.

“Sorry if I’m a bit late! Had a lot of godly business to do, the Underworld to run… You know,” he laughed. An umbrella was floating above him as he walked in the air and turned his head towards Hercules. “I got your message. It’s quite rude to call me here on such short notice and with such temper, but I forgive you.”

“So you accept the deal?” Hercules asked, slightly uncertain.

Hades’ lips turned slowly up into a grin, and he nodded. “I accept it. If you win this fight, you’ll get the girls and the map, I’ll leave the cities alone, and blah blah blah… And if I win,” he paused, “I’ll get Thebes and you’ll become my slave for the next hundred years. Sounds pretty fair to me. I bet Zeus won’t be that pleased to hear about it, though. Ha!”

Milo gasped and looked at Hercules with wide eyes, and Phil shook his head, sighing ‘oh what have you done, boy, what have you done’.

Jim furrowed his brow, not really understanding why the hero was willing to go that far to help a couple of strangers. A pirate would never do that. But maybe that’s why he was a hero, after all.

“Good. Let’s make this a fair fight, Hades! Come on down!” Hercules jumped off the ship into the waves, and Milo yelled what the heck he was doing, but then he took a look over the railing and saw that Hercules’ powers made him float so that he could walk on the surface of the water like it was nothing. Milo cheered for him, and Hercules sent a shy smile over his shoulder.

“Oh no, the deal didn’t say anything about me being the one to fight,” Hades said. “I’m not a big fan of fighting in the territory of my dearest brothers. In fact, water is not really my thing at all.”

“What?” Hercules’ face fell.

The sea started moving, and Silver’s ship swayed heavily when the water hit it. Jim had to hold on to the railing in order to not fall down, and he tried to see the cause of the movement while blinking the rain away from his eyes.

Something big rose up from the sea; a beautiful naked woman with dark features and red lips, but when she moved higher everyone saw that instead of legs the lower part of her body was twelve giant tentacles. Her mouth opened unnaturally wide to reveal three rows of huge, sharp teeth, and the deep, vibrating bellow she let out sounded like a mix of an alligator and a tiger, chilling everyone to the bone. 

“Say hello to my newest friend Scylla! She came all the way from the Strait of Messina,” Hades said with a grin.

Hercules took the sword in his hand, but it looked awfully small compared to his opponent.

“Remember your training, boy!” Phil shouted, but just the sight of the monster had drained the blood from his face.

Scylla roared again and dashed towards Hercules with her tentacles ready to strike and teeth ready to tear his flesh apart. Hercules jumped out of her way, but one of the powerful tentacles managed to hit him on his abdomen, sending him flying straight into the water. He sank under the surface for a second, but then his head popped up and he gasped for air, spitting the water out of his mouth. But before he had even recovered from the previous attack, Scylla made another one, trying to catch him.

“Dive!” Milo shouted, but Hercules was already underwater.

“Why is he having trouble with that tentacle lady? I thought he was a legendary hero,” Jim asked him, still holding on to the railing.

“He’s not himself… And that monster isn’t just an ordinary monster. She’s known to wreck  
the ships passing by her in the Strait of Messina and eat the sailors on them,” Milo explained while trying to spot Hercules in the water. He was nowhere to be seen.

“So she really is her,” Jim muttered. “I’ve heard about her before, but I thought she was just a myth.” 

“Every myth is based on true stories.”

Scylla growled when she couldn’t find Hercules, but then the growl turned into a howl and the water turned red as Hercules popped up again, having cut one of the tentacles off with his sword. He quickly rose back up to the surface again, and Scylla let out a high-pitched screech before swinging her tentacles at him. Hercules tried to dive again, but Scylla grabbed him by his leg and swung him high in the air, slamming him into the water over and over again.

By the time she was done, Hercules’ body had gone limp and he was hanging in Scylla’s grip like a rag doll. He swung his sword weakly, but the monster just tossed him around, making the sword slip out of his hand and sink into the waves. 

“Is that all you’ve got, Wonderboy? I have to say I was expecting this to be a little more entertaining,” Hades sighed, not even trying to hide his yawn. “Finish him off, my dear Scylla.”

Hercules closed his eyes in shame, and the last drop of confidence he had had faded into thin air. He took a deep breath, ready to face his horrifying fate.

“I won’t let him give up!” Milo took his glasses off, grabbed a pile of rope laying next to him, and before Jim could stop him he jumped into the dark water, trying to do a swan dive but ending up to do a belly flop instead. He pretended not to hear Hercules’ pleads for him to stay out of the fight as Scylla noticed a new pray to hunt and lunged forward.

“What is he doing? He doesn’t even know how to fight! We must do something,” Jim shouted to Silver over the rumble of the dark sky.

“If we try to help them while on this ship, Scylla will start targetin’ us too,” said Silver, shaking his head.

Jim couldn’t believe his ears, although it shouldn’t have been a surprise. “You care more about a ship than a person’s life?”

“You know that’s not what I meant. I’m just lookin’ after my crew,” Silver argued. “There’s no need to make unnecessary sacrifices.”

“Right. A pirate’s logic,” Jim muttered with a sneer. “Well, I’m going!” 

“Wait!” Silver grabbed Jim’s shoulder. “Don’t go makin’ hasty decisions. Let’s see how this goes first.”

“How do you think it’ll go? Do you really think he could win against that monster?” 

They both watched as Milo avoided the hit of Scylla’s tentacles by diving, and when he came back to the surface he fiddled with the rope, clearly trying to do something, but Scylla didn’t give him a moment of peace to let him finish. He was struggling to hold the rope, dodge the monster’s attacks and keep his head up while the high waves washed over him. Hercules was trying to pry the tentacle holding him open, but his powers had been drained completely. 

Silver let out a long sigh, taking his hand off of Jim’s shoulder. “How could I let ya go on yer own?” He then shouted over his shoulder: “Vitani!”

The said woman lifted her head at the mention of her name, and came to them right away. “Captain?”

“Help Jimbo distract the monster while he saves those bloody idiots,” Silver commanded.

Vitani nodded, sending a glance at Jim and jumping on the railing. Her balance was amazing considering the ship was swaying hard at this point and the everfalling rain made the wooden surface slippery, but Jim guessed being a lioness came with its upsides.

“Don’t get in my way, boy,” Vitani growled so low that only Jim could hear it, and then she jumped. Jim huffed, not sure if that was meant to be a threat or a friendly warning given accidentally with a murderous tone, but either way he jumped after her. 

The freezing water knocked the breath out of him, and it took him a couple of seconds to recover from the shock and start moving his limbs to prevent them from going numb. Scylla had taken interest in the roaring and insults-shouting Vitani, and while the monster attacked her Jim swam to Milo, whose lips had gone blue.

“Need some help?” Jim asked, getting a mouthful of salt water into his system from that. The waves felt even bigger from down there, and he wasn’t so sure about his swimming abilities anymore. Now that he thought about it, sailing in space seemed much safer. He wouldn’t even mind a few supernovas and black holes at this point.

“Jim!” Milo coughed. “You- you shouldn’t have come!”

“Too late for that now. The only way of getting away is defeating that enormous monster.”

A huge wave washed over them, and for a second Jim had a horrifying thought of Milo drowning, but fortunately his head popped back up.

“I have a- a plan but I’m not sure if it’ll work,” Milo stuttered, teeth clattering. “We could try to tie Scylla’s tentacles together with this rope so that she can’t move anymore.”

“Sounds like the best option we have,” said Jim and took the other end of the rope, tying it to his belt to make it easier to swim. “You hold onto the rope while I dive under Scylla.”

“But – “

“Let’s go!” 

They didn’t have time to argue about who should do the diving part, so they just went with it. They swam closer to the monster, who was still distracted by Vitani, and Jim dived under water. He counted to three and opened his eyes, grimacing in pain because of the burning sensation caused by the salt water. He resisted the urge to close his eyes again, and soon the pain became tolerable. He couldn’t see anything, though: only dark and blurry silhouettes of something that moved fast, which he guessed were the tentacles. What had he gotten himself into again? It would be impossible to navigate through them without getting hit by one of them.

Jim cursed his life, cursed the military, cursed his own stupid self, and most of all cursed Sinbad before he started swimming in the darkness unable to see anything. The quiet sea around him gave him a feeling of security; everything seemed so calm like there was nothing going on; but then a hard punch from a tentacle sent him spinning around in the water, and the last bit of oxygen escaped his lungs.

When he stopped spinning he realized he didn’t know which way was up and which was down; which was forward and which was back. The water was heavy around him, and everything was just… dark. Panic clutched his chest as his lungs were screaming for air, and he knew he wouldn’t last longer than a few seconds. 

He did the only thing he could: he grabbed a hold of one of the tentacles that swung past him. Scylla reacted just as he had thought, raising her tentacle up in the surface in irritation, and Jim gasped desperately for air. Who knew breathing could be so much fun?

Scylla growled and tried to shake him off, and Jim voluntarily let go, flying into the water again. He couldn’t sigh in relief, though, because he would have to dive again. And probably again. And maybe more. And he was already exhausted from having to fight against the waves to keep his head up.

A sudden noise of men shouting filled the air, making Jim raise his brows in confusion until he located the cause of it: Sinbad had come back with his crew, and their ship was heading straight towards Scylla with the harpoons out. Kida’s ship was coming right behind them, commanded by Shang, but it seemed to stop purposefully a little bit further away. 

Jim reacted quickly by untying the rope and swimming as fast as he could away from the monster, because once she realized she was the one losing, she would do anything to survive.

Sinbad’s ship collided with Scylla, and the harpoons attached deep to her body and tentacles. The scream she let out was heartbreaking and terrifying at the same time, and she finally dropped Hercules. Milo started swimming towards him immediately, his face scrunched with worry.

“Don’t worry, Hercules, I’m coming!” Milo reassured.

Scylla was bleeding badly, and the howling turned into small whimpers. She tried to move her tentacles with no result, because one of the harpoons had cut off the nervous system to most of them. Jim almost took pity on her and was going to ask someone to put her to rest, but then the monster roared and ripped herself off the harpoons, charging at the nearest person there was: Milo.

Milo had almost reached Hercules and didn’t know what was happening until Hercules, body blue with bruises, used his last bit of powers to throw himself in front of him and let Scylla’s icicle-like teeth sink into his shoulder. His muscles tensed as he held Scylla’s head to prevent her from ripping a piece of him with her, and he grunted in pain when the teeth sank deeper.

Time seemed to stop around them, and even the waves had calmed down as if waiting for something.

A light started shining out of the wounds on Hercules’ shoulder, and Scylla let go of him with a screech. The light spread to his whole body, and he rose up from the water as Scylla started sinking, not being able to hold herself up anymore. Jim protected his eyes with his hand, close to being blinded by the brightness, and he wasn’t the only one. 

Hades’ eyes bulged out of his head as he stared at Hercules, squeezing the cocktail glass in his hand so hard it shattered.

“He… He got his powers back! My boy got his godly powers back!” Phil yelled and jumped around. “He became a true hero! I knew he would do it one day!”

Hercules’ wounds started closing up, his bruises faded and his lips stretched into a big, goofy smile. He then landed back on the surface, lifting dumbfounded Milo up and holding him in his arms.

“Um, are you alright?” Hercules asked.

“Me? Fine? I’ve never been more fine in my life,” Milo blurted, not being able to tear his eyes away from the shining hero. 

“Uh, guys,” Sinbad shouted from the bow of his ship, “I hate to break it to everyone, but the military ships are right on our ass!”

Hercules lifted his head as if remembering where he was and what had just happened, and with incredible speed he ran on the water to Silver’s ship, put Milo to safety and turned to Hades, who was sweating fireballs and gnawing his teeth.

“Herc, my man, let’s talk about this first,” he tried to smile but was met with a glare from the hero. “Maybe I was the tiniest bit of unfair, but let’s face it – you got your powers back because of me, right? Shouldn’t I earn a small thanks for that at least?”

Hades backed as Hercules walked in the air with his fists clenched, but Kida, who was standing behind him in her shackles, kicked his back and forced him to stay where he was. Hercules grabbed him by his collar, pulling him closer only a few centimeters away from his face.

“We had a deal. You leave us alone, set Megara and Kida free, and give the map back. If I ever see your face again…” he tightened his grip, and he didn’t even have to finish his sentence before Hades was nodding frantically. 

The shackles tied around Meg and Kida’s wrists were broken by the snap of Hades’ fingers, but Kida wasn’t ready to leave yet: she marched straight in front of Hades and slapped him. Hard.

“The map,” she demanded, and Hades handed both of the halves to her with a sneer, muttering ‘fine, fine, rob me blind, will you’. 

“Can someone throw the ladder already?” Jim shouted next to Silver’s ship. Vitani had climbed up by using her claws, but as Jim didn’t possess such useful things, he had had to wait in the sea until someone noticed him. 

A ladder was thrown to him immediately, and he was surprised to see how much his arms were shaking as he grabbed the first step of the ladder. It took him a lot of effort to haul himself up, and as he got to the last step he collapsed on the deck from exhaustion. Silver was on his side the next second, patting his shoulder sympathetically.

“Told ya you shouldn’t have gone there,” he said with a grin. There was a blink of worry in his eyes, though, but it faded away when Jim just groaned and told him to give him a break.

“Men, get ready to set sail! We’re goin’ back to the stars,” Silver commanded, and everyone on the ship started running around.

Kida, Hercules and Meg got on Silver’s ship too after dealing with Hades, and they were standing beside Pegasus and Phil. Phil was congratulating Hercules enthusiastically and telling him how proud he was, but there was still some sadness in Hercules’ smile every time he looked at Milo in the corner of his eye. Kida noticed the glances Hercules was sending, and she crouched down to Phil and put her hand around his shoulders.

“Hey, before we leave, Meg and I would like to talk to you about something,” she smiled, winking at Hercules over her shoulder before taking Phil away with them. Pegasus followed them, leaving Hercules and Milo alone.

When everyone had gone, Hercules scratched the back of his neck, blushing slightly as he started talking. “So, I… I guess you’ll be leaving with them, huh?”

Milo pushed up his glasses, giving the hero a small smile. “I, uh… I- I’m not sure if the life of a pirate really suits me. And my research is still not complete. And I kind of left most of my stuff back to my hotel, so…”

“You did?” Hercules laughed with a nervous undertone. “Well, I mean, you’re always welcome to my palace if you want to complete your research.” 

“You’re not going back to Olympus to live with the other gods?”

“Nah, I think I’m good here. I will go to meet them, though, but I could take you with me. But only if you want to,” the hero said, taking shyly Milo’s hand in his hands.

“Of course he wants to,” Kida answered, making both of them jump. “And don’t you dare say otherwise.”

“B-but I…”

“We’ll come visit you after we’ve found the treasure,” she grinned, patting Pegasus’ white back. “You should go now unless you want to be taken by the military for interrogation.”

Milo nodded hesitantly, and after giving her a long hug, he and the others got on Pegasus, waving everyone a goodbye. Pegasus spread out his wings, taking off into the sky, and soon they were gone. Meg comforted Kida by putting a hand on her shoulder, but they didn’t have time to be sad about saying goodbye. The military ships could already be seen in the horizon, and it wouldn’t take them long to reach them.

Kida’s ship glided near Silver’s ship, and the crew lowered the wooden bridge to make it easier for their captain to hop on. 

“Welcome back, Captain,” Shang greeted them as they stepped on the ship.

“Great to see you. Everything under control?” Kida asked as she stepped on her ship, looking around for any changes.

“Yes, Captain. We’re ready to launch the ship,” Shang answered, straightening his back. His eyes drifted to Meg standing behind Kida, and he raised his brows questioningly. 

“Good,” Kida smiled, not bothering to explain Meg’s presence just yet. 

After regaining some of his strength back, Jim started helping out at the preparations. He was double-checking the shrouds when he noticed Silver walking towards him, hands behind his back and the usual small smile on his face.

“Shouldn’t ya be helpin’ that Sinbad fella?” Silver asked.

“I think they can manage themselves,” Jim answered, tightening one of the ropes.

Silver was quiet for a while, and then he said: “Did you two have a fight?”

“No,” Jim said through gritted teeth.

“I see.” Pause. “I think the rope is goin’ to hold now.”

Jim hadn’t even noticed that he had tied the rope in at least a quadruple knot, so he let it go and turned to Silver. “You think?” He smiled, but then he let out a sigh. “They’re going to do just fine on their own. It’ll be a pain in the ass to launch the ship through those thunderclouds, though.”

“If ya say so,” Silver nodded. “The woman’s crew is signalin’ that they’re ready. Now we’ll just have to wait for Sinbad.” 

Sinbad’s crew finished the preparations in no time, regardless of Silver’s words, and Rat waved a brightly lit lantern from the crow’s nest to tell they were ready. The military’s ships were so close that they could easily fire the cannons at them, and Jim thought the only reason they didn’t was because he was there and the cannons could hit him. He also knew that if they didn’t leave immediately, the military would have no trouble with catching up with them after the exosphere since their ships’ engines were much more powerful and designed to be used in space. 

There was a strong blast of wind, and a massive whirlpool opened up between the pirates and the military to everyone’s surprise. The thunderclouds separated above the pirates, moving away from them and revealing a peaceful sky. A lightning struck one of the military ships, and Jim tried to hide his grin. Hercules seemed to have talked to his father.

“Launch the ships!” Silver’s voice rang out, powerful and commanding, and the ships’ engines started roaring. They took off to the sky with everyone cheering and knowing that the sky was on their side.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Long time no see! I'm in my last year of upper secondary school, so I’ve been crazy busy with the finals. –sighs- I have too little time to write nowadays. This chapter was more action and Hercules-based than the others, but I wanted to keep Sinbad and Jim separated for some time before making them see each other again, so I hope you don’t mind. I promise the next chapter is going to be all about them. :D But yay, we’re finally going to space! I’ve been waiting to write about it since I started this fic.


	11. Decisions

”Let’s talk.”

When Sinbad heard those words come out of Kale’s mouth, he knew exactly what the topic was going to be and that he couldn’t escape it. He was the captain of the ship, but Kale had his ways of backing him into a corner and forcing him to talk, whether he wanted or not. And even if he didn’t want to admit it, he actually needed to talk to someone about what had happened, so he willingly followed Kale to his own cabin and sat down on the bed where Jim had slept. He couldn’t help but notice it still smelled faintly like him.

“So, what’s up?” Sinbad asked, glancing at Kale who was standing in front of him with his arms crossed, looking like a mother about to scold her child.

“Did something happen between you and Jim again?” Kale pursed his lips.

“Why do you ask?” Sinbad lay down on his side on the bed like Kale’s question didn’t bother him at all. 

“Because you have been avoiding him, he has been avoiding you and this tension between you two has been driving us all nuts.”

“Just because we don’t spend every second together doesn’t mean that something happened,” Sinbad said.

“Yes, you’re right,” Kale stepped forward, “but we’ve been sailing for hours now and every time I see Jim on the deck of Silver’s ship, he’s looking daggers at you! So what did you do?”

The captain bit the inside of his lower lip, not meeting Kale’s eyes, and then he groaned. “Okay. I might have kissed him.”

Kale was genuinely taken aback, and his arms dropped to his sides as he blinked, trying to process what Sinbad had said.

“And,” Sinbad continued, “I might have run away after that.”

Kale’s face turned into a frown. “Just because you’re afraid to admit your feelings doesn’t make it right to –“

“I’m not afraid to admit my feelings!” Sinbad jumped up. “It was a mistake. And I regret it, alright? I’d take it back if I could!”

Kale shook his head like he couldn’t believe his ears. “So you’re not even interested in him?”

Sinbad hesitated for a moment. “He’s a good guy.”

“Okay,” Kale shrugged. “Okay, fine, whatever. I accept that. Just make sure to make up with him. He’s the only one who knows how to use the map, so it’d be better to be in good terms with him.” He turned to leave, but then he stopped in the doorway, and without even looking at Sinbad he added: “You’re my captain and a friend, so I don’t want to be too harsh on you. But I warn you: if you’re not going to get together with Jim, I will.”

Sinbad was left alone in his cabin, and he felt like there was a lump in his throat when he swallowed. The talk with Kale hadn’t helped at all; instead he was more confused now than before. Was there actually something going on between Kale and Jim? Sure they had been buddy-buddy with one another before he and Jim had left the ship to hunt the map, and sure Jim seemed to trust Kale more than him, but he hadn’t read too much into it back then. 

“Fuck,” he cursed and took a knife in his hand, throwing it to the wooden door in frustration. Then he kicked one of the tables, making a golden helmet - a souvenir from their trip to China - clatter on the floor. One of the dragon decorations cracked when the helmet hit the hard wood, and Sinbad cursed again. “Shit!” 

There was a small knock on the door, and the captain grunted a permission to enter. The door opened slightly, and Li’s face peeked through it. 

“I saw Kida get on Silver’s ship, so they’re probably going to open the sphere. Thought I should inform you if you wanted to join them,” he said, choosing his words carefully.

Sinbad rubbed his temples. “Yeah, thanks. I’ll be there in a moment.”

Li closed the door, and an exchange of coins between him and Jin happened behind it.

“I knew he would go,” Jin whispered to Li with a snicker, happy to have won back the money he had lost to him before. “Hey, wanna bet if he and Jim will make up?”

*

The sphere felt cold and heavy in Jim’s hands as he examined it while sitting on the bow of Silver’s ship, legs dangling over it. It hadn’t been hard to attach the two halves together; he had only had to press here and there, and the force of attraction between the pieces had done the rest. It seemed the pieces attracted each other only when they were within a short distance from each other, so it would have been impossible to try to track down the one half by using the other. And that wasn’t all: the sphere didn’t open in the same way like the previous one, so it had taken Jim a while to figure out how to use it.

“Either Captain Flint was even more of a sly bastard than we originally thought or we’re dealing with someone much cleverer,” Jim muttered, throwing the map in the air and catching it. “Could it be a copycat? The spheres look exactly the same, but they function differently.” 

Finally he stood up and walked to the captain’s cabin, where Silver and Kida were sitting and discussing how to avoid the nearest asteroid belt over a glass of wine. Their heads turned as he came in, and both started grinning when he showed the full sphere to them.

“You managed to figure out how it works?” Kida beamed. “I tried to do it too, but I couldn’t even attach the halves together.”

“It took me a few tries too,” Jim said, scratching the back of his neck and smiling.

“Look at you! Bein’ so modest and all,” Silver laughed. “Well, what are we waitin’ for?”

Jim turned the pieces of the map seven times before there was a ‘click’ and a green hologram spread out, filling the whole cabin. It was mesmerizing to see all the planets, the moons and the stars just floating around them like they were the universe itself, and for a few minutes they just stood there, admiring the map. Even Silver, who was eager to know the destination.

“It’s so… beautiful,” Kida breathed, afraid to touch it. She had never seen anything like that even though she had been to space a few times before. 

“Where’s the map leading us?” Sinbad asked, and everyone’s attention turned to him.

“So you finally decided to show up.” Jim’s voice was close to absolute zero, and no-one failed to notice it. “Anyway, where was I?” he continued as if Sinbad’s appearance didn’t affect him in any way, touching the hologram to make the map move forward. It took them on a journey through the universe, passing by other solar systems and galaxies and showing them the tens of billions of stars, black holes and lonely planets. A warm feeling washed over Jim as they passed the Montressor, his home planet.

Then the map stopped, and seeing the area made Jim frown.

“What is it?” Kida asked.

“For some reason there are three different planets highlighted. It’s possible that there’s some sort of secret code and the other two planets are just traps, but I guess we have to check each of them out.” Jim directed his words to Silver and Kida, turning his back on Sinbad.

“Great,” Sinbad nodded, trying hard to not mind the cold shoulder Jim was giving him.

“Where exactly are these planets?” Silver wondered out loud, rubbing his chin with the cyborg arm. He looked around the map and tried to identify some of the closest solar systems, but he came up with nothing.

“Honestly? I have no idea,” Jim said. “I’m not familiar with this galaxy. Kida?”

“Don’t ask me, you’re the experts,” the white-haired captain shrugged. “The limit of my knowledge stopped after the Coral Galaxy.”

“Well, we’ll have to carefully follow the map’s directions then. We should keep this course until we’re in the next solar system,” stated Jim and closed the sphere, making the map around them disappear. No-one disagreed when he suggested that he’d keep the map with him, so he took his leave. 

He had told Silver earlier that he’d sleep in the lower deck where the rest of the crew slept, and after a ten-minute argument the captain had had some of his men put up a hammock for him. The day had been exhausting; everyone had worked hard to make sure the military wouldn’t be able to catch up with them; so most of the crew had already gone to bed. Only one man was patrolling around, keeping an eye on the other pirate ships. 

Time lost its meaning in space since there wasn’t any way to tell the difference between day and night. Of course everyone had a clock on their ship, but the crew seldom looked at it because every planet had their own way of measuring time. And that’s what made Jim love sailing in space so much: the freedom of not knowing what time it was.

“Jim,” Sinbad’s voice followed him, interrupting his thoughts. “Jim, wait. I said wait!” 

Jim stopped dead in his tracks, turning aggressively towards the pirate. “I heard you the first time!”

“Okay, okay, calm down,” Sinbad hushed. He licked his lips, suddenly not knowing what to say now that he had managed to grab Jim’s attention. “Look, let me explain.”

“Explain?” Jim let out a short, bitter laugh. “I think you made yourself pretty clear. I’m sick of seeing your face right now, so I’m going to bed. Goodnight.” 

He turned to leave, but Sinbad pushed him roughly against the wide main mast, trapping him between his hands. Jim’s breath hitched in his throat, and he hoped Sinbad hadn’t had time to catch the spark of lust that had flashed in his eyes.

“Just hear me out, will you? Please,” Sinbad said in a husky voice, staring into Jim’s eyes.

Jim nodded slightly, breaking the eye-contact. “Okay.”

They were so close to each other Jim could feel the heat radiating through Sinbad’s clothes and his heart started beating faster against his own will, but then Sinbad stepped away, making him sigh in frustration.

“About that kiss,” the captain started, running a hand through his hair, “I’m sorry. It wasn’t intentional. Can we just… forget it?”

The earlier annoyance turned into a disappointment, but Jim swallowed those feelings and hid his emotions behind an expressionless mask. “So… You’re saying it didn’t mean anything?”

Sinbad took a deep breath, closing his eyes. “It was a mistake that happened in the heat of the moment. Besides, you and me? It could never work. Let’s just go back to the way we were, eh? ”

The air around Jim felt suffocating. “Fine. Let’s pretend it never happened,” Jim said coldly, but his voice almost cracked. “Are we done now? I’m tired and I need some rest.”

“Yeah. Yeah, of course,” Sinbad nodded, reaching his hand out to touch Jim’s shoulder, but Jim flinched away. “Night, Hawkins.”

Jim didn’t answer, and tears welled up in his eyes as he stomped to the lower deck. Vitani snarled sleepily at him for his loudness, but he just kicked the shoes out of his feet and crawled to his hammock. He stared at the ceiling for a long time, refusing to cry over a stupid thing like this although his heart ached like it was going to shatter into pieces. Finally the sounds of men snoring and the creaking of the ship as the patrol walked on the deck lulled him to restless sleep, and a single tear rolled down his cheek. 

A cold shiver running through him woke him up, and Jim realized his blanket had fallen on the floor. He groaned, rubbing the tiredness away from his eyes – he had probably slept for two hours, tops – and dropped down on the floor. He bent down to get the blanket, but then a blue pirate with antennas on his forehead who was sleeping under his hammock mumbled in his sleep, grabbing a hold of the blanket. Jim tried to jerk it to himself, but the pirate’s grip was strong.

“I didn’t want to go back to bed anyway,” Jim muttered, letting go of the blanket. He was fully awake now, so after putting on his shoes he went up to the deck, walking towards the patrol who was dozing off while leaning against the mast. “Hey, I’ll take the next shift.”

The patrol jerked awake, trying to look like he had been awake the whole time. He reeked of alcohol, and Jim noticed the half-empty bottle of rum next to him. “Huh? I wasn’t sleeping! And who’re ye?”

“Hawkins, remember?” Jim stared at him, a little bit amused. 

“Oh. Right. I knew that. I ain’t stupid.” The man looked like he was going to argue about letting Jim take the next shift, but then a yawn caught him off-guard and he stood lazily up. “Aight, mate. Don’t let the ship blow up or else I’m gonna skin ye.” There was a slight stagger in the pirate’s step as he walked away, and when he was finally gone Jim sat on the deck and took the bottle in his hand. 

The rum was burning his throat as he drank the bottle empty with three gulps, and the strong feeling made him cough. How pathetic it was: drinking alone on the deck while everyone else was sleeping. And over what? A damn pirate? Jim would have laughed at himself if he hadn’t felt so miserable. It wasn’t even like he and Sinbad were close – surely they had saved each other’s lives, but that was it. He shouldn’t have let himself be fooled into thinking that there might be something more, because there wasn’t: Sinbad was only after the treasure. 

“Jimbo? You’re still awake?”

Silver startled Jim out of his thoughts, making him jump up and drop the bottle like he had been caught red-handed doing something he shouldn’t.

After managing to gather himself together, Jim posed with a military-like pose and imitated the pirates’ accent with a sarcastic tone, saying: “Aye, Cap’n, just me and me rum watching over the ship.”

“Talkin’ like a bilge rat doesn’t suit ya,” Silver chuckled, ruffling Jim’s hair. “Come with me.”

“Why?” Jim asked, but followed the captain anyway. 

They walked to the bow of the ship and watched the universe open up all around them in silence. When Silver didn’t say anything, Jim sighed and started talking himself.

“Have you ever liked anyone?” he asked, feeling slightly tipsy. 

Silver stared into the distance as he answered: “There was this one girl. Pretty as a bloomin’ flower, I tell ya.”

“What happened?”

“She married some guy in her village. Never heard a word from her since.”

“Oh.” Jim didn’t know what else he could say. He hadn’t even expected Silver to answer so honestly, so it had taken him by surprise. “She didn’t love you?”

“She did. I just didn’t realize it until t’was too late. We made quite a team back then, me and her,” Silver told him, taking his hat off and looking at it like it brought back some memories. There was a hint of sadness in his words. “I’m tellin’ you this ‘cause I don’t want you to make the same mistakes I did.”

“Yeah, well, I’m not the one running away,” Jim muttered. 

“I know. But every time I look at Sinbad, I see myself in him,” said Silver. “Give him another chance. He needs to realize his feelings himself.”

Jim went silent for a while, but then he shook his head. “No. I’m tired of being toyed with, and from now on I want things to go my way. I’m going to help you find the treasure – if there even is one – and then I’m going back to the Interstellar Academy and finish my training. After that you can call me Captain James Hawkins.”

“Alright, Captain Hawkins,” Silver guffawed and patted Jim’s back. “If that’s what makes ya happy.”

*

Sinbad had thought that after making things clear with Jim, he would feel relieved because this was how things were supposed to be. But he didn’t. In fact, he felt horrible, which he took out on his crew by making them clean up the whole ship twice. He had bags under his eyes, and he was marching around the ship restlessly, snapping at everything that didn’t please him. Even Spike felt that something was off, so he stayed out of the captain’s sight.

“Rat, how many times have I told you to keep these damn ropes out of the deck?” Sinbad growled and kicked a pile of rope.

“Three times today, Captain,” Rat answered, hanging upside down from the ropes above the deck.

“Exactly! Do something about them,” the captain said, continuing on his way.

Sinbad stopped when he saw Jim heading his way, but surprisingly the man didn’t seem angry or even the slightest bit of annoyed. Seeing him so indifferent made his heart wrench, but he tried to play it cool.

“Is Kale here?” Jim said, looking around and nodding kindly as his eyes locked with some of the crew members who had noticed him coming.

A spike of jealousy stabbed Sinbad right in his chest at the mention of Kale. “What do you need him for?” he couldn’t help himself asking.

“I’m going to try out the fast attack boats and I need a first mate,” the man explained, looking like he would rather be anywhere else but in front of Sinbad.

“A captain’s not good enough to be a first mate?” Sinbad tried to joke but earned no smile from Jim. 

“I’ll gladly come with you,” Kale said behind Sinbad and walked over to Jim, putting a hand around his shoulder (their height difference was ridiculous and didn’t look good with them, Sinbad noted).

Sinbad swallowed, staring at their backs as they walked away and trying to tell himself he had made the right decision before. This was better than ending up getting his heart broken in the end. He would get over this. Wouldn’t he?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Do you ever feel like you want to punch one of your characters? Sinbad is making things so hard for him and Jim! And now Kale is getting involved too. Some of you hoped for a Sinbad/Jim/Kale love triangle, so here you go. :D
> 
> I was listening to Battlefield by Jordin Sparks and Chokehold by Adam Lambert while writing this chapter, and I realized that they pretty much describe Jim and Sinbad’s relationship. Also I finally kept my promise and didn’t keep you waiting for too long for this chapter! Although I feel like my writing is gradually getting worse chapter by chapter… Ugh. I might just rewrite this story once I’m through with everything.


	12. Between the two of them

The engine of the fast attack boat let out a soft purr when Jim unlocked the control panel and pressed the start button, checking the fuel and gravity levels before pulling the steering lever up. As the boat detached from the ship and started floating in the air, Jim piloted it to go down through the hole at the bottom of the ship while Kale kept holding the two balancing levers steady in the front of the boat just like Jim had instructed. After they had managed to get the boat outside of the ship, Kale let go of the levers and walked to the back where Jim was staring at the control panel with a slight frown.

“Everything under control?” Kale asked, glancing at the panel over Jim’s shoulder. There were just way too many buttons and symbols for his liking.

“Yeah, I’m just trying to figure out why the turbine light is flickering yellow,” Jim said absent-mindedly without taking his eyes off the control panel and pressed some green buttons at the top. “Nothing to worry about. Can you take the sails in? It’s the lever on your left. The one with the rusty handle.”

“Isn’t anything done manually here?” Kale let out a small chuckle but pulled the lever anyway, making ropes pull the orange canvas up. He sat next to Jim, rubbing the back of his neck in silence. “Thanks for asking me to come here with you.”

Jim’s hand stopped over the panel and he sent a surprised glance at Kale, but then a smirk stretched across his face and he nodded. “Sure thing. You’re one of the few pirates I actually trust. Even though you tried to, you know, kill me when we first met. And kind of kidnapped me with the rest of the crew. But that’s okay, things like that happen.”

Kale laughed, crossing his arms. “Hey, I thought we were already past that. Besides, you haven’t been our prisoner for a long time now and you could’ve just left when we arrived to Greece.”

”I… suppose so.” There was an unasked question somewhere in Kale’s words, but Jim decided to ignore it. After all, what could he say? That his thirst for adventures had awakened? Or that he had stayed because… “How’s the crew?” He turned back to fiddle with the control panel, because the yellow light was still on. “I haven’t had time to catch up with you yet.”

The pirate raised his eyebrow, sensing that there was something Jim didn’t want to tell him. As much as his curiosity nagged at him to be straightforward and ask about it, he didn’t want things to become awkward this time since the topic was clearly uncomfortable for Jim. “The same as usual. Jed gambled back his money after losing everything to you, and Spike’s been missing you like crazy. He even tried to come to sleep in my hammock once, which he never does. Things also got pretty hectic at the harbor when the military ships came, I tell you. We almost left without Sinbad since we thought he was with you.”

Jim’s stomach dropped at the mention of Sinbad and his lips tightened into a thin line as the image of Sinbad’s soft lips flashed in his mind. Getting over him didn’t happen as fast as he had hoped. “I see. Glad to hear things are okay.” His grim mood faded, however, when the yellow light stopped flickering, meaning that he could finally start the turbine properly. “Alright, I suggest you hold onto something. These things go pretty fast.”

He wasn’t kidding. When Jim pushed the steering lever down, the boat sprang forward like a space rocket, making Kale let out a surprised shriek as he almost flew off the bench he was sitting on. Jim was grinning like mad as the speed swept his short hair back from his face, and the excitement spread through every little cell he had while he made little zigzags and aimless turns with the boat. The mast bent slightly from the resistance and made creaking noises, but he wasn’t too worried since it had been made to withstand high-speed attacks, so he slowed down only then when his wrist started cramping from holding the steering lever in the same position.

“That was fun,” he beamed, putting the autopilot on from the control panel.

“I don’t think I’ve ever felt this sick in my life,” Kale said with a groan and leaned forward to rest his head on his hands. “Waves I can handle, but this space stuff is a completely different thing.”

“Come on, that wasn’t too bad,” Jim smiled and patted him on the back but retreated his hand quickly when he noticed Kale tensing under his touch. He cleared his throat, not sure why he was feeling so awkward all of a sudden like he shouldn’t have touched Kale, as he continued: “Okay, I might have overdone it a little. I just wanted to see what these boats are capable of. We can go back now.”

Kale nodded slowly, standing up to go hold the balancing levers but sitting back down when the other man told him he only needed those during take-offs. He watched as Jim put the autopilot off and started steering them back towards Silver’s ship, which was a few kilometers away, and he couldn’t help but sigh. “Are you going to stay with John Silver from now on?”

“Do you miss me already?” Jim asked, making Kale huff out a laugh. “To be honest, I haven’t decided yet. Do you have an extra hammock for me?”

“You don’t want to sleep in Sinbad’s cabin anymore?” 

Kale didn’t sound surprised at all, and Jim wondered if Sinbad had told him something. But then again, if Sinbad wanted to forget the whole thing, he wouldn’t go around telling others about it. Jim swallowed hard, cursing himself for failing again to shut Sinbad out of his mind. “Uh… Not really. I’m not that close with him anyway.” He hoped that Kale didn’t notice the hint of sadness in his voice.

“You’re welcome to stay with us then,” Kale said with a smile.

The boat glided steadily inside the ship and the hole closed up after them. They shut off the engine, and Kale jumped off first, offering then his hand for Jim to help him climb down. Jim raised his eyebrows as if to say ‘really?’, but he accepted the hand nonetheless, reminding himself that Sinbad would have never been as sweet as Kale. And that he should really stop comparing everyone and everything to Sinbad.

They walked to the ladder through a row of fast attack boats that were parked almost right next to each other, climbing up back to the deck. The first thing they saw was Sinbad staring at them with a slight frown, arms crossed across his chest.

“What took you two so long?” the bearded man asked. His voice was neutral, but it still caused a small irritation rise in Jim’s chest. Who did the pirate think he was? First trying to brush everything off by playing friendly, and now demanding to know his whereabouts?

“I didn’t know that I had a curfew,” Jim said along with a roll of his eyes and walked past Sinbad, bumping into him with his shoulder. 

“Silver was looking for you,” Sinbad stated. “Said we’re going to have to stop at planet 458 to restock our supplies and he wanted to talk about it to you.”

“Why would we stop at planet 458? That’s… Actually, never mind. Kale, thanks for helping me out,” Jim sent Kale a smile before making his way towards Silver’s cabin. He wanted to find out why Silver wanted to stop there, and why now. There were other, _safer_ planets just a couple light years away, and they should make sure to keep their distance from the military.

He stomped into the cabin and slammed the door behind him, startling Silver who was taking a nap on his chair and whose hat fell off on the floor by the sudden movement. “Blimey, Jimbo! Be a little quieter next time, eh?” 

“Do you really think it’s a good idea to stop at 458? After all that happened there…“

“I see that Sinbad fella already told ya about it. But don’t ya worry, I actually have a plan.” Silver leaned forward to pick up his hat and put it back on his head.

“The planet is under military’s surveillance! There’s no way your plan is going to be good if it involves going there,” Jim said, walking in circles. “Do you want us to get caught? The last captain who didn’t listen to my advice got the whole crew in danger. And because of the universal laws your crew is the one who’d suffer the most since you’ve committed piracy in space.” 

The old pirate let out a deep sigh like he knew Jim was right but he didn’t have a choice. “Don’t I know that, Jim, don’t I know. But we have actually a better chance to go unnoticed on planet 458 than on other planets. ‘Tis highly likely that the military isn’t expecting us to go to a planet that’s already under surveillance, so they won’t notice that we’re there. And if they do…” His mechanical eye flashed. “We just havta spread a false rumor of our ships’ course. The pirates there love to gossip.”

“Wait- there are pirates on 458?” 

“I suppose you wouldn’t know since you’ve heard about the planet only from the military. Aye, there’s even a city for pirates, but yer people have chosen to ignore it to keep the people from riotin’ again. The last time they did they caused a bloody mess.”

“I can’t believe I’ve missed the information about that,” Jim groaned. At this rate his hair was going to turn gray before he turned twenty-five. “If everything you say is true… I guess your plan might work. Alright, let’s do it. I’m going to buy parts to build a solar surfer while we’re at it.” 

“That’s the Jim I like!” Silver stood to pat Jim’s back.

After their discussion Jim decided to stick around for a while and just have a chat with Silver. Silver asked him about his years in the Interstellar Academy, and with a small grin on his face Jim told him about that one time when he had been caught kissing the vice admiral’s son in an empty classroom when they had thought no one was around, and how he had sneaked out of the dorms to fly his solar surfer so many times that he couldn’t even remember the count, and there was also this time when he had accidentally set the fire alarm off with his friends and the whole academy had been soaking wet after that (and they had never even found the culprits). 

“I thought ya toned down the rebelliousness after gettin’ into the academy,” Silver guffawed in the middle of his story.

“I did,” Jim said with a shrug, trying to look innocent. “I’d have more stories to tell you if I hadn’t.”

Jim hadn’t realized how much he had actually missed talking about stupid stuff with Silver and hearing his vibrant laugh that had annoyed him in the past but reminded him of good times now, and he wondered whether Silver had missed him too, never managing to gather the courage to ask. Watching Silver’s back as he rummaged through one of the drawers, trying to find the newspaper where he had seen Jim, reminded him so much of his mother that he had to quickly rub the sadness away from his eyes before the old pirate could see it.

Eventually Jim got hungry, and with a wave of goodbye he left the cabin to find something to eat. He didn’t really know anyone else in Silver’s crew – and didn’t want to get to know them either – so he made his way to the galley on Sinbad’s ship where he could have at least some company to eat his dinner with.

Kale and Luca were chilling in the galley as Jim walked in, but they didn’t have time to say anything when Spike, who had been eating leftovers on the floor, made a huge jump towards him, knocking him over.

“I missed you too, buddy,” Jim laughed and tried to push the slobbering dog off him before he was completely covered in drool.

“Take a seat, take a seat!” Luca offered a free stool for him after Spike had calmed down, and Jim gladly accepted it. 

“What’s on the menu today?” Jim asked.

“Let me see…” Kale started. “The dish of the day is pickled eggs with dried beans and cheese. The chef also recommends to pair ale with it. Would you care to try it?” 

“It would be my pleasure, sir,” Jim nodded, and they both grinned. 

The eggs tasted disgusting, and so did the rest of the food, but anyone who spent most of their time sailing got used to bad food pretty quickly. Sometimes the food was nice – like Silver’s cookings – but most of the time it was barely edible. Jim didn’t mind it that much, though – it felt actually quite nostalgic.

“We heard from Cap’n that ya got hurt while y’all were in the land of the dead. Ya alright now?” Luca asked as he wiped away the beans that had fallen on his white beard while eating.

“No need to worry,” Jim assured, feeling slightly embarrassed that everyone was still worried about him. He wasn’t weak; he could handle himself just fine.

“Good, good. Well, I’ll leave ya two to it then. Gotta go finish the card game with Jed,” stated Luca. “He’s gonna lose again, ha. C’mon, Spike, let’s go.”

Jim wished him good luck, turning towards Kale and was surprised to find him staring right at him. He couldn’t read the expression on his face, and as soon as his eyes met with his, Kale turned his gaze away. Jim wasn’t sure how he felt about it, so he decided it was wise to leave too.

“I have to tell you something.” Kale said before Jim could go, standing up.

“Uh, sure. What’s up?” Jim asked.

“I…” Kale took a deep breath. His face was unusually serious, and there was a hint of vulnerability hidden somewhere under it. He licked his lips before starting to speak again. “This may be too sudden, and I understand if you need time to think it through, but I’ve been meaning to say it to you for a while now.”

Jim’s heartbeat quickened as he realized what Kale was about to say, a part of him flattered but the other part shocked. Was he really going to say it?

“Okay, I… I like you,” Kale said, letting out a forced laugh. “I know it must be quite a surprise.”

Jim just stood there, frozen in place, until he became aware of Kale still waiting for his response. He had no idea what to reply to him. “Yeah, I’m… That was… A little bit unexpected.” He blinked a couple times, trying to form a complete sentence in his head. What the hell was going on? He had had no idea that Kale had actually _liked_ him. Sure, they had gotten along well and he had enjoyed his time with Kale, not to mention the fact that he did find Kale attractive, but all this time…

“Sorry, I must have made you uncomfortable,” Kale sighed, rubbing the back of his neck and not meeting Jim’s eyes. He took one step towards the stairs leading to the deck, but then Jim touched his hand.

“Wait,” he said. “I was just surprised, that’s all. Let me try something.”

And with those words Jim put his hand on the taller man’s neck and stretched up on his toes to place his lips on Kale’s, closing his eyes and kissing him softly. Kale was the first one to pull away, and he stared at Jim with wide eyes.

“That was odd but… I liked it,” Kale breathed.

Jim smiled at him, slightly sad. He hadn’t felt anything. Nothing at all. It had been just like kissing his brother or a friend, even though he had wanted it to be something more. It hadn’t been like with… like with Sinbad.

Someone at the doorway cleared his throat, making Jim jump out of his skin and take three steps backwards so that his head collided hard with a barrel, and he let out a painful yelp. Of course the person standing there had to be Sinbad.

“Oh, please continue, don’t let me disturb your love-making,” Sinbad chirped, but his face was taut with anger, which he tried to hide but failed miserably. He marched to the shelves, grabbed some beans and salted meat onto his plate, and marched out, not giving Jim or Kale time to explain themselves.

“Shit,” Jim cursed. Sinbad always had the worst timing.

“At least he won’t bother you anymore,” Kale said.

“Yeah…” Jim should have felt relieved now that he had made it clear to Sinbad that he was – or at least was going to get – over him, but instead there was a gnawing feeling in his gut after seeing Sinbad reacting like that. And he was also getting pissed off – it wasn’t Sinbad’s problem who he kissed or didn’t kiss! Did he always have to ruin everything?

“Jim?”

He snapped out of his thoughts and looked at Kale, whose face was scrunched up with worry. Jim hadn’t even realized that his own expression had turned into an angry scowl too, so he quickly grinned and nodded. “Sorry. I just, er, need time to think about all this. I’ll see you later.”

“I understand.”

Kale’s gentle, understanding smile made Jim feel even worse, guilt burning inside his chest. He didn’t want to hurt Kale’s feelings, but it wasn’t right to lead him on either. Should he just try to make himself like him more than just a friend? Everything had become so complicated. 

Jim didn’t see Sinbad anywhere on the deck, so he guessed he had locked himself inside his cabin. He knew they were both being childish about this, but Sinbad had started it, and Jim wasn’t going to be the one to fix it. It wouldn’t even matter anymore after the journey was over; they would both go back to their normal lives – maybe richer than before – and forget about each other soon. Jim would graduate and never go back to Earth anymore and Sinbad… Well, Sinbad would probably find someone who was not _Jim_ and continue on being a pirate. And maybe that was for the best.

Jim climbed up to the empty crow’s nest on Silver’s ship and stayed there until he could see the planet 458, glowing big and dark in the distance with a few blue dots on its surface. Three moons orbited it, one of them being occupied by the universal military to keep an eye on the planet, and Jim hoped they would blend in with the other ships that were departing and landing on the planet. He was excited to see what 458 looked like, though, because the military had never assigned him to go there and most likely would never do that in the future either unless other riots broke out. 

“Jimbo! Don’t just sit there on yer bum; come down and help!” Silver yelled, standing at the bottom of the mast with hands on his hips and a wrinkled smirk on his face just like the old times.

“Yeah, yeah,” Jim huffed, a grin tugging at the corners of his mouth.

Every ship started hurriedly prepare for the landing, and the decks were quickly filled with a bunch of men running around and yelling either commands or ‘aye, aye’s. Silver had told Jim to go to the ship’s engine room to make sure nothing was overheating, and it had taken him some time to actually find the damn room. He had had to go there through a hatch in the crew’s sleeping quarters and slide down the ladder through a narrow passage, which had almost been enough to make him feel claustrophobic.

The engine room was burning hot and steamy. Jim tried really hard to push away the unpleasant memories of the room in the Underworld where he had been trapped, but it still made him feel nauseous and his mouth go dry. This time the heat wasn’t like a damp, stuffy sauna; it felt like the flames of Hell.

“Just do what you’re told, Hawkins,” Jim muttered to calm himself down, checking quickly every pressure gauge as he walked around the room in red lighting. Nothing seemed out of order, so he sighed in relief and started climbing back up. 

The ships had already crossed the stratosphere and were sailing fast towards the land as Jim got back on the deck, happy to be breathing fresh air. Everywhere he looked at was black sand and simple houses made out of dark brick. Even the harbor they were sailing towards had no water, and all of the ships were floating above the ground. When they were close enough and Silver ordered to turn off the oxygen pumps, Jim could smell a faint scent of sulfur in the air, making him gag a little.

“Aight, lads! We’ll be stayin’ only a couple hours, so don’t ye dare wander off too far! Ye know the rules: no fun times with ladies or gents, no unnecessary fights, and the ones who’re not here in time will be left behind! Everyone know their job? Good, let’s get goin’ then!” Silver shouted, standing on a barrel so everyone could hear and see him. 

Jim was about to follow the rest of the crew, but then he felt Silver’s big hand on his shoulder and he turned around. “What now? You’re not going to tell me that I can’t go, are you?”

“This is the pirate city. ‘Tis not safe for you to go alone, boy,” Silver said, voice filled with concern.

“I’ll be fine on my own. I’ve been so long with pirates that I’m almost a pirate myself,” Jim answered and moved Silver’s hand away, giving him a reassuring smile. “I need some time alone.”

The old pirate sighed, ruffling Jim’s hair then. “Well, I can’t stop a man doin’ what he wants, but at least take my pistol.”

“Thanks,” Jim said as he held the pistol in his hand, examining it for a second before tucking it inside his pants’ waistband and covering it with his shirt. He jumped on the railing and got ready to climb down the rope ladder, and then he seemed to remember something. “By the way, I borrowed a few coins from your pocket!”

“You little –!” Silver rushed towards the railing, but Jim had already disappeared down the ladder with a smug grin. “That boy…” the pirate huffed, and he couldn’t help but smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m finally here with a new chapter, but boy, it took me some time. I’ve finally figured out what to do with the rest of the story, and I hope you’ll like the ending! And if you don’t, well… be gentle with me, okay? I wanted this chapter to go deeper into the relationship between Jim and Silver, and to show you Jim struggling between Kale and Sinbad. The kiss is going to cause some trouble in the next chapter, so you should look forward to it! (Yes, before you ask: I love drama.)
> 
> It would be so cool if you gave me some feedback on this story, but just being there and supporting me quietly is also okay. :D I’m super happy to see that there are so many people reading this, and I hope you know that I’m forever grateful to all of you. It’s been almost a year since I started writing this fic, and I can’t believe that it’ll end soon (but don’t worry, there’ll still be at least four or five chapters more). Anyway, thank you guys so much.


	13. Planet 458

Megara was sleeping on Kida’s bed, curled up in a fetal position with arms wrapped around a velvet pillow, and Kida smiled at the peaceful sight as she walked in. The Greek woman had let her hair down, and her curls spread out freely around her like a dark halo, making her skin glow like a fairy. Kida wanted to touch her, but she was afraid that she would disappear if she did.

Meg seemed to sense that someone was watching her as she cracked her eyes open, and her lips stretched into a lazy smirk. “Do you normally watch people sleep, pirate girl?”

“Maybe,” Kida admitted, opening the carved doors of her closet and looked through her collection of dresses and skirts. “How are you feeling?”

“I didn’t remember being a mortal was so exhausting,” she sighed overly dramatic. “All these new feelings of being tired, hungry – it’s like I’ve woken up from a thousand year slumber.”

“I thought immortal beings still eat and sleep?”

“We- They do, but only because it’s fun. It’s not a necessity.”

“I see,” the captain said. She took out her normal outwear – a blue bikini and a long sarong-like skirt – and then turned towards Meg, who had gotten up to sit on the edge of the bed. “Do you wish to change your clothes? I think you would look lovely in one of my dresses.”

Meg took a deep breath and smiled, opening her mouth, but then her lips started to quiver and she turned her face away. “You shouldn’t be so kind to me.”

“And why is that?” She sat next to her.

“I can never repay you for what you did. All those things you had to go through in the Underworld were all because of me.” The moment of weakness on her face was gone, and it had turned into a stoic mask. “You don’t even know me… You don’t know what I’ve done in my past. Just because I helped you and your friends doesn’t mean that I’ve always been like that. I don’t deserve this.”

Kida didn’t say anything as she took the woman’s hand in her own, bringing it close to her face and placing a soft kiss on her fingers. Megara flinched, surprised, and finally their eyes met again. 

“I do not care about the past,” Kida started, rubbing the back of her hand with her thumb, “I have done some things I am not proud of in the past too, and sometimes I can not sleep with those thoughts running wild in my head. But the decision to stay with you was my own choice, so you do not owe me anything.”

“But Hades – “ 

“Tried to break me, yes, but he did not succeed. It is not my first time being held captive. “ She let out a laugh, not sure if it was a good thing or not. A deep old scar in her upper back started throbbing when the unpleasant memories flashed in front of her eyes. “You should only worry about yourself, Meg.”  
She pursed her lips, looking like she might continue arguing, but then the corners of her mouth turned upwards and she tossed her hair to one side, revealing her neck and ear like a challenge. “Well show me those dresses then, pirate girl.”

Kida happily accepted the challenge.

*

Jim glanced around, taking in all the hustling and bustling of the wide main street that was bordered with idyllic shops made out of black bricks and wood and decorated with colorful signs, trying not to seem too suspicious. Everywhere he looked at he could see grumpy, tough looking pirates from different parts of the universe, and the realization that he was in an actual, honest-to-god pirate city, which the military had basically given its approval for in secrecy, slowly struck him. 

He could get killed if anyone recognized him, and yet it was the perfect opportunity to get to experience something he wasn’t able to under normal circumstances. He already loved it.

“Fancy a new pair of arms? Yours look unconventionally useless, if I may say so.” A fox-faced man blocked Jim’s path and clattered a pair of mechanical arms in front of him. “The severing of your current arms is free!”

“Yeah, uh, no thanks. I’m quite fond of my arms,” Jim said and tried to walk past him, but the man was persistent.

“How about a new eye then, hm? We have many models to choose from! Only the best for the best client!”

“Not interested,” Jim said more emphatically, shoving the man out of his way. He felt bad for being so rough, but it seemed that it was better to use sheer force than empty words in this city, because the man gave up after that and continued to pursue his next victim. 

Many of the shops sold replacement parts for ships which would have been suitable for his solar surfer too, but examining them closer made him realize that most of them were poorly crafted and would probably fall apart after a use or two. Even the scrap metal he had used to build his first solar surfer had been better quality than most of the stuff they sold here under the label of ‘finest parts in the galaxy’.

With a disappointed sigh he took a turn to a less-crowded street, walking forward and taking turns until he came to a modest-looking metal shop in a sewer-smelling alleyway. He didn’t notice it at first; it didn’t have any display windows or signs hanging over it, but a golden text of ‘parts for every vessel’ on the dark wooden door caught his eye. 

Someone had scraped the door multiple times with something sharp, and really, it should have made him turn around and find another store.

A bell tinkled as he stepped inside. 

The shop was bigger than he had imagined: the shelves were full of all kinds of metal boards and hoops, solar engines, bolts, and other supplies that Jim could have only dreamed of before, and the parts seemed as good – if not even better – as in his home planet. It didn’t seem right that the shop had such an unnoticeable appearance when it was probably the best around here. 

Jim cleared his throat. “Hello?” He was alone in the room, the ticking of a clock being the only source of sound in the silence.

He heard quiet rattling, and a woman, whose clothes gave the impression that she had taken an oil shower in the morning instead of a regular one, strode out of the backroom, giving him a glance and crossing her arms.

“Yo. Can I help you? Sorry, I wasn’t expecting any customers.”

“I’m looking for some parts to build a solar surfer,” Jim explained. “I need a little bit of everything.”

“Dunno what that is, but it sounds awesome.” The woman’s red lips stretched into a teeth-showing grin. “You new here?”

“Is it that obvious?” Jim followed her and watched as she heaved some boxes out of the shelf to the floor, helping him to choose what he needed and recommending the best kind of bolts.

“Not really,” she said. “People usually just avoid coming to my shop, that’s all. I have four regular customers and all of them are my long-term friends.”

“Why?” he couldn’t help himself asking, even though it was none of his business. “From what I’ve seen, your stuff is far better quality than the shit they sell out there.”

She snorted at his honest words, adding more parts to the growing pile in Jim’s arms. “Couldn’t have said it better myself. I kinda pissed off the wrong people, and the word gets quickly around here. Plus there have been some other things too.” She moved on to the next shelf, and Jim had to check how much money he actually had with him. “To be honest, I’m completely fed up with pirates.”

“I can relate,” Jim said without thinking, and the woman raised his eyebrows. “Uh, I mean- Whatever ya be talkin’ ‘bout.”

“You’re not very convincing,” she laughed, hitting him on the shoulder. Hard. “Anyway, do you think that is enough?” She gestured towards the mountain of mechanic parts. “I’ve never built a surfer before. Doesn’t it need some wooden parts too?” 

“Yeah, I can get those later, but for now this is enough. Thanks for helping me.”

“No problem. I’ll give you a discount since you’re not a pirate.” She walked to the counter and dug out a calculator, typing numbers onto it with her quick fingers and then showing the price to Jim, who felt relief spreading to his whole body. He had just enough money to buy everything. “Do you want a bag for them?”

His answer got lost in the sound of the door bell clanging with an aggressive tone, and both of their heads turned towards it.

A slender pirate in a crimson coat and a matching cavalier hat with a huge feather swaying on top of it walked in, giving them a sneer down his huge chin. “My apologies, did I interrupt something?” 

The man’s words were like a poison apple coated with sweet sugar, and Jim’s gaze dropped to the pirate’s left hand, which was replaced with a silver hook. He put the parts down to the counter, hand instinctively shifting closer to the pistol under his shirt.

“I was just about to leave anyway,” Jim said to him, giving then the woman a short smile. “Can you bag those for me, please?”

“Sure.” Her voice was tight and Jim noticed that her hands had been balled into fists as she pulled out a cotton bag under the counter and started loading the parts into it.

“Wait a second.” The pirate’s eyes narrowed as he continued to stare at Jim, and his right hand rose to stroke his black moustache like he was trying to recall something. “Do I know you from somewhere?”

“I don’t think so,” Jim answered, maybe a little bit too quickly. He didn’t know if the man had seen him with the military before or if he was just confusing him to someone else, but he had to get out of there before he gave himself away.

“No, no, I’ve definitely seen you before. Oh, excuse me, where are my manners? Captain James Hook,” he extended his non-hooked hand, showing him his crooked teeth by stretching his face into something that distantly resembled a smile.

Jim wanted to touch the man as much as he wanted to touch a pile of rotting cucumbers, but he shook the hand nonetheless, saying the first name that popped up in his head. “Sinbad.” 

“No last name?”

“No. Just… Sinbad.” 

“Well, Sinbad,” Hook hummed, “let me escort you out.” His eyes moved to the woman behind the counter. “I’ll be back later, Audrey darling. I hope you have the things I asked you a week ago by then.”

“Fuck off, Hook,” she spitted out, looking like she was ready to jump over the counter and fight the pirate with bare fists. “And leave him alone.”

“It’s alright,” Jim interrupted before she did start a fight with him, and he tossed the heavy bag on his shoulder. “I’ll see you around then.”

He kept an eye on Hook as they walked towards the door, the captain a step ahead of him. His heart started beating faster the closer to the door they got, and a plan of running away as soon as his feet touched the ground crossed his mind. The pirate didn’t seem like a fast runner in his fancy clothes, and it should be a piece of cake to lose him in the crowded city. He wasn’t too far away from the main street either.

His plan was ruined, however, when they actually got outside. A big group of at least twelve pirates was waiting for them, blocking both ways of the alleyway, making it impossible for him to get away. They must have been one of the ‘wrong people’ Audrey had mentioned before, and Hook had probably taken them with him for whatever business he had with her. Otherwise it would have seemed far too convenient to be a coincidence.

“Sinbad, meet my men,” James Hook said. “Would you like to join us for a glass of wine? It’s on me, of course.”

Jim eyed the crew, nodding slowly since ‘no’ was not an answer. He had no idea why the pirate captain had become so interested in him, and he was sure that they hadn’t met before. There was no reason for him to do anything to him, right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry for writing such a short chapter, but it's been so long since I've updated so I wanted to give you at least something. My inspiration for this fic got lost for a while, but I hope I'll get it fully back after I've finished all of my exams and can start writing regularly again. 
> 
> On the side note, Jim getting into trouble seems to have become my greatest kink. :D Sorry not sorry. And I know I always say this, but I'll seriously try to update the next chapter sooner.
> 
> // My original plan involved writing more about Sinbad and Jim in this chapter, but I decided to cut it and move it to the next chapter. Sorry about that too!


	14. The truth about his feelings

Jim’s feet sunk into the black sand on every step he took. His shoulder throbbed under the weight of the bag that held the parts for his solar surfer, and a drop of sweat ran down his back.

Most of Captain Hook’s crew members stayed six feet behind him, but two of them walked so close to Jim that he could feel the stench of ingrained sweat from not bothering to change clothes or take a bath for months slithering into his nostrils, making him scrunch up his nose, afraid to open his mouth in case the smell would fill it too. For once he was glad that Sinbad and Silver’s crew took care of their personal hygiene at least that much that he was able to stand in the same room with them without wanting to cut off his own nose.

They seemed to be heading away from the harbor, and the further they walked the more Jim started to consider about escaping. He could knock out the two pirates by swinging his bag at them, and if he was fast enough the other pirates wouldn’t have time to react and he could escape through the side street that was ahead of them.

His grip around the bag tightened as the side street came closer and closer, but then Hook raised his hand to signal them to stop, and the opportunity was gone.

“We’re here,” he stated, nodding towards the black two-storey house with windows only on the top floor. He drew the heavy-looking piece of red fabric covering the doorway to the side, revealing sounds of laughter and music, motioning for Jim to step inside.

A strong scent of perfume and smoke hit him in the face, and the inside of the place was dark, a dozen of candles on the brick walls being the only light-source. Tables had been pulled to the sides so that people had a large area in the center of the room for dancing, and Jim was guided to the only free table by Hook’s hand on his back.

“What can I get for you and your crew, Captain Hook?” a pale boy with a lanky walk and an eye patch covering his face came to ask them as soon as they were seated.

“Your finest red wine for me and rum for my men,” Hook said. “Sinbad?”

“Just water,” Jim answered.

“Don’t be ridiculous. Red wine for both of us!”

The atmosphere in the place wasn’t like Jim had imagined. He had thought he would be dragged to an illegal underground fighting club or something similar – not to a cheerful tavern with people dancing and drinking and smoking water pipes while a concertina played in the background. He would have almost enjoyed himself if it wasn’t for the fact that he wasn’t supposed to be here. There was no one who would come to his rescue if things got out of hand, which they usually did.

“You see, Sinbad,” Hook started, pouring Jim’s glass full of wine to the point of overflowing, “it took me some time to remember, but I know now who you remind me of.”

“Oh, yeah? And who’s that?” Jim asked, letting his gaze wander around.

“Four years ago there was this boy, or a young man should I say. And I’m not the kind of man to hold a grudge, no, I do consider myself to be quite fair, but this boy and some other militants caused the detaining of three of my men by surprising them while they were sleeping.” The captain stroked the hook in his hand. “Does the name Hawkins say anything to you?”

For a millisecond the universe stopped breathing, and then Jim let out a quick laugh, trying to think of an undetectable lie. “I’ve heard about him. Never met him, though.” He examined the wine glass as if it was a rare museum item.

He couldn’t recall the incident Hook was talking about, but four years ago, when he was still a rookie, he had indeed captured a few pirates across the galaxy with some other cadets. A year later he had been assigned to do different kind of missions, and he had almost forgotten all about the pirates who had been sentenced to jail, or worse. He should’ve known that it would come back to bite his ass some day.

“Is that so?” Hook raised an eyebrow.

“I also heard that he was kidnapped by pirates. He’s probably already dead, poor bastard,” Jim said, swallowing down the nervousness bubbling inside him. “Which reminds me that my own captain will have me hanged if I’m not back on time.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t keep you long.” Hook looked at him with a crooked grin. “Say, have you ever been to a place like this?”

“I, uh, couldn’t call myself a pirate if I hadn’t.”

“Excellent. The show will begin in a minute.”

Before Jim could ask what kind of show Hook meant, the music stopped and the people on the dance floor moved away. A bald, green-skinned pirate, whose arms moved like they were boneless rubber, strode to the center of the room and bowed to every direction, clearing her throat.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” she said, eyeing everyone, looking also briefly in Jim’s direction, “I welcome you today to the weekly fight show!”

Jim sighed and poured the wine down his throat as everyone around him started cheering. Of course it couldn’t be just an ordinary tavern.

“Who will be the first one to challenge our previous champion – the man, who has won over a hundred times and shows no mercy to his opponents? Please welcome Shan Yu!”

Everyone’s head turned to look at a man who stepped out of the shadows, a dark aura looming above his head. His eyes were black, except for a striking yellow iris, and he had death written all over him.

“So? Any volunteers?” the green pirate asked. “This time the prize for winning will be thousand gold coins!”

Whispers were exchanged, and finally someone in the back rose up, pushing her way through the tables to the area where Shan Yu and the other pirate were standing. 

“I challenge you, Shan Yu!” she exclaimed, pointing her finger at him. She was awfully small compared to him.

“Wonderful! And may I have your name, miss?” The green pirate smiled, rubbing her hands together.

“Nova of Archimedia.”

“Thank you, miss. The rules are simple: there are no rules. The first one to admit defeat will lose,” she explained as she handed both of them swords, taking then three steps away from them. “Begin!”

Shan Yu attacked before the green pirate had even finished the word, and the woman seemed to be already in trouble when their blades met and she was forced to stumble back under the pressure. She recovered quickly, though, swinging the sword towards Shan Yu’s legs. When he jumped up to avoid it, something flashed in the woman’s free hand and she slashed at Shan Yu’s shoulder, making him grunt and retreat.

”You’re not so tough after all, are you?” Nova said.

“Enjoy your moment of victory while you can,” he grunted, frown deepening. His gaze moved to his sword, and he touched it gently, moving his fingers along the blade. “A fine sword indeed.”

He started moving again, but this time his movements were a lot faster and sharper, almost as if he hadn’t even been serious at the beginning. He sent constant swings towards Nova, using so much force in one of the hits that he managed to make her drop her sword, kicking it away from them so that it was unreachable. 

The woman tried to make a run for it, but Shan Yu stopped her with a kick and pierced her side with the sword. 

Nova screamed and fell to the ground, trying to stop the bleeding with her hand. The blood flowed through her fingers like a fountain, and Jim could see her face starting to turn pale with a tint of purple.

“You have an hour before the poison starts shutting your organs off,” Shan Yu said.

Everyone started cheering at him, but Jim felt sick to his stomach as he watched as Nova tried to stand up, legs giving out every time. Finally two men came to help her up and carried her away.

“Seeing as the challenger is unable to continue, I declare Shan Yu the winner!” the green pirate announced, walking back to the center. “Is there anyone else who would like to try to challenge him? Thousand gold coins! Come on! This is a great chance to get some extra money!”

“Why don’t you try, Sinbad?” Captain Hook asked with a hum. “You do know how to fight, don’t you?”

Jim looked at the hook the captain was stroking, and then at Shan Yu, and he licked his dry lips. Maybe this could be the chance to escape if he just managed to distract everyone and make his way discreetly towards the door.

“Alright, I’ll do it.” He couldn’t believe that he was saying this.

“We have a volunteer here!” Captain Hook stood up with Jim and pushed him towards the center of the room.

“How wonderful,” the green pirate said, welcoming Jim with open arms. “And your name is..?”

“Sinbad.” He was starting to regret using Sinbad’s name, because in a crowd this large someone might know Sinbad and realize that Jim wasn’t who he said he was. If Sinbad even was as known as he claimed to be, that is.

“Thank you, Sinbad. Well, you know the rules already, so may the best man win!” 

Jim weighed the new sword she gave him in his hands, trying to find the right balance. It was slightly heavier than the ones he usually used, but otherwise it felt good.

“Okay, just like the old times,” he muttered under his breath, locking his eyes with Shan Yu’s. Even a single scratch from his sword would mean the end for him, and he was pretty sure that Hook wasn’t the type to help him. 

“You look worried, boy.” Shan Yu let out a deep chuckle, walking slowly in a large circle like a predator ready to attack, never taking his eyes off Jim. “Are you sure you want to do this?”

“You should mind your own business,” Jim said. He looked for an opening, a weakness, anything that he could use against him, but Shan Yu seemed to have his guard perfectly up. “I do worry about your hairline, though. I think it’s receding.”

Shan Yu let out a roar, lunging forward. Jim had just enough time to dodge the attack, and their swords screeched against each other. The pirate was strong, pressing the blades closer to Jim’s face with sheer force. Three seconds more of this and he would be done for.

Jim stopped resisting, diving under Shan Yu’s blade and making him stumble forward when there was nothing to meet his force. Shan Yu turned around quickly and swung the sword again, but Jim did a quick somersault and managed to avoid it. 

He grabbed a bottle from one of the tables and threw it at the pirate. The bottle shattered against his forehead, spilling the liquid inside it all over him.

“You little…” Shan Yu grumbled, wiping the liquid away from his face. His hand was shaking with anger.

Jim’s eyes shifted briefly towards the door to plan his actions, but it was a horrible mistake. He didn’t have time to react when he felt a fist connect with his stomach, sending him flying on the floor. He gasped for air.

“I’m not going to use the poison on you yet, no. I’m going to have a little bit fun with you before that,” Shan Yu said and lifted Jim up by the collar of his shirt.

“FIRE!” someone yelled. “THERE’S A FIRE!”

Everyone started running and rushing away from their seats. Tables and chairs fell down and people stumbled over them, trying to get out before everyone else. Someone started screaming and there were yells of pain all around them.

Jim yanked himself free and crawled under a table, making his way towards the direction he thought the exit would be. Tears formed in his eyes as the thick smoke burned them, and halfway he realized that he was going to the wrong way. There had to be a back door somewhere, though, so he kept going until he passed the bar counter and could crawl to the back room.

“Where, where?” he chanted, looking frantically around him. He covered his mouth and nose with a sleeve, standing up on his feet and starting to run.

Fortunately there _was_ a back door, but when he tried to open it he realized that it was locked. And he wouldn’t have time to look for the key.

“Give me a break already!” He started kicking the door, and when it didn’t work he threw himself hard against it. The door was either poorly designed or poorly made, or both, and on the second try it finally gave in and opened.

Jim ended up in an alleyway that was apparently used for storing trash, judging from the smell and piles of garbage bags, but he was happy to breathe something else than smoke into his lungs. He had to find his way to the harbor, but to do that he would have to go back to the street that he had come from.

“He can’t have gone far. Find him!” Captain Hook’s voice echoed in the distance.

Hurried steps seemed to be coming his way, so he started jogging to the other direction, completely exhausted now that the adrenaline was gone. His stomach was still hurting.

He took a turn to another street but stopped dead in his tracks when he saw a couple of Hook’s men patrolling at the end of it. The steps were coming closer, and it was too late to turn back now. 

Jim’s heart jumped out of his chest when someone grabbed him by the arm and put a hand over his mouth, pulling him inside one of the houses and shutting the door firmly after them. He was about to protest loudly until he saw who the person was.

“Sinbad?”

“Shh,” Sinbad hushed, keeping his hand on Jim’s mouth. He pressed his ear against the door and waited until the steps had passed before letting Jim go.

“What are you doing here? How did you find me?”

Sinbad looked guilty for a second. “Well, I mean, Silver was worried because you were going alone, and we all know how much of a troublemaker you are, so…”

“So you followed me.”

“I wouldn’t use the word ‘followed’. More like kept an eye on you,” Sinbad said as he scratched his neck. “And for a good reason, apparently. How did you manage to get on Captain Hook’s bad side in such a short time?”

“He knew who I was. Or at least I think so,” Jim said. “I caught some of his crew members a few years ago.” Then he paused. “Did you cause the fire?”

“What fire?” Sinbad tried to look innocent, but the grin on his face told everything.

“Unbelievable,” Jim snorted, turning to examine the house they were in. It looked like someone lived there and that they were standing right in someone’s living room. “What is this place?” 

“Honestly? I don’t know. I just broke in here after making sure that no one was home.” Sinbad walked further into the living room, throwing himself on the couch and taking a comfortable position. “Better wait here until Hook is gone.”

“Right.” 

Jim followed his example and slumped down onto a chair across him. For once he was too tired to care if someone got offended that some strangers had broken into their house and made themselves comfortable.

“So,” Sinbad started after a minute of silence. ”You and Kale then.”

Jim groaned. Did he really have to bring it up now when neither of them had a place to escape to? “It’s not like that.”

“Like what?”

“Like… Look, why do you care? You were the one who rejected me.”

Sinbad frowned, sitting up on the couch. “I never rejected you.”

“Are you serious right now?” Jim had a hard time quieting down his voice, and he had to bite his tongue in order to do that. “You said the kiss didn’t mean anything. I think that’s a pretty clear way of saying that you don’t want anything to do with me.” 

“Well, I…” Sinbad closed his eyes. “I was scared, okay?” He spat the words out like he wanted to get rid of them as fast as he could.

Now it was Jim’s turn to frown. “Scared of what?” 

“Scared of my feelings.” He looked like he wanted to take back his words but had said too much to stop there. “When Marina left me… my heart broke. Really bad. I thought that she was the only one for me and that she cared as much about me, but she still chose Proteus over me. After that I never wanted to trust my heart to anyone again.”

Jim swallowed, not really knowing what to say. “But you still showed interest in me at the beginning.”

Sinbad let out a laugh. “To be honest, at first I was just messing with you to see your reactions, but then I realized that I had developed real feelings for you. Stupid, huh?” He sighed and stood up, walking to the door to listen if the other pirates were gone. “I’m sorry for hurting you. If being with Kale makes you happy, then I guess –”

“Just shut up already,” Jim said as he walked up to Sinbad, grabbed his shirt and kissed him.

Sinbad took a surprised step back, back colliding with the door with a thump. Then he wrapped his arms around Jim’s waist, pulling his body against him, deepening the kiss like he was desperate to get more.

Their tongues met with each other, and Sinbad’s mouth was warm and wet, tasting like wine. His hand sliding under Jim’s shirt made him shiver with pleasure and his heart flutter with sudden nervousness. He moved his own hands to grope Sinbad’s hair and tugged it slightly. 

Kissing him felt right.

“I think that’s enough for now.” Sinbad smiled against Jim’s lips, breathing against his skin. “Don’t want to do anything inappropriate in someone else’s house.” 

“Are you sure you’re going to be fine with that?” Jim grinned back and caused friction between them by moving himself against Sinbad’s lower body.

Sinbad’s breath hitched in his throat and he let his head fall against the door. “There’s a man outside who probably wants to kill you. And we have to go back to the harbor. And the owner of this house might come back any moment.”

“Okay then,” Jim said, shrugging his shoulders and moving away. “I think it’s safe to go now.”

“Uh, I’d rather wait a few minutes, if you don’t mind.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone, it’s me again! I’m super happy to see so many new readers, and I hope you’re enjoying the story so far! 
> 
> These past few months have been a big roller coaster for me, and I’ve struggled a lot with writing and trying to find inspiration and motivation to write (I wrote three different drafts to this chapter and this is the final version, lol). But seriously guys, without you and your support I would have lost my interest in writing this fic a long time ago. This is actually the longest fic I’ve written so far, so cheers to that! I’m still planning on finishing this even though it may take a while.
> 
> There might be some errors because I was writing this in the dead of night - as always - and I'd be glad if you pointed them out. :D


End file.
